Adeptum Effectus
by Reddevel360
Summary: "Killing a man will harden you. Fighting a war against genocide will harden a species. Why are we so ruthless Councilor? Because when fighting for your very existence, anything is acceptable." - Lord Hood. Featuring a Humanity that discovered the archives on Mars in the midst of fighting an war for their very survival, a war that destined to be a massacre turns into a stalemate.
1. Timeline

Greetings people, it is I your benevolent ruler with another story. This story is based on **StarSerpent's** 'Invicta: Second Front', I wanted to do a Halo – Mass Effect story for a while now and had an idea rocking in my head for a while until I read 'Invita' and it was brutally crushed, bare in mind that this is done with his blessing.

Bare in mind this story will use 'Invicta' as a base but will have my own changes, along with my own tweaks to both universes.

Finally, this first chapter IS a timeline of events and for that I apologise for those that will be put off because of this, but I will post an actual chapter in a couple of hours after this one so don't get mad at me. Please?

* * *

**2490 AD**

**-May 18****th****-** The colonisation of _Vesta _in the trinary system of Breaslay, marks the 800th within Earth-Controlled space.

**-August 7th - **The Human population officially reaches 67 Billion.*

**2494 AD**

**-August 27****th****\- **With almost 1000 colonies spread across known space, funding is funnelled away from the CAA (Colonial Administration Authority) and towards the growing UNSC, the current CMA (Colonial Military Authority) proving to be too inefficient and corrupt to properly defend human worlds from the rising Insurrection, since the Far Isle Crisis in **2492 AD**.

**2492 AD**

**-January 12****th****\- **A full unit of Project: ORION super soldiers are deployed during Operation: CHARLEMAGNE. This marked the only time a group of 'SPARTANs' was deployed in the whole project.

**2506 AD**

**-Febuary 14****th****\- **Despite the fears of a full blown civil war between the Inner and Outer colonies due to the Insurrection, Project: ORION is quietly deactivated due to time and money constraints even as the UNSC are given more funding and freedom to deal with the uprisings.

**2511 AD**

**-March 7****th****\- **John-117 is born on Eridanus II.

**2517 AD**

**-April 25****th****\- **ONIcaptures 75 children from various colonies to restart Project: ORION under the codename GEN II. Led by Dr Catherine Halsey, this day marked the first in the SPARTANs legendary tale.

**2525 AD**

**-February 3****rd****\- **Kig-Yar (Jackals) vessel _Minor Transgression_ discovers a human ship that dropped out of slipspace due to issues with its drive, the ship along with another are raided by the Kig-Yar.

**-Febuary 11****th****\- **The colony world of _Harvest_ becomes the first official confrontation with the Covenant. It ends with _Harvest_ glassed and the beginning of the 'Human-Covenant War' or more commonly referred to as the 'Great War'.

**2526 AD**

**-March 7****th****-** _Circinius IV _is glassed.

**2528 AD**

**-September 6****th****\- **_Madrigal_ is glassed.

**2531 AD**

**-February 1****st****\- **_Harvest_ is reclaimed under the leadership of the now Admiral Cole.

**-February 6****th****\- **_Arcadia_ is attacked though it remains in UNSC hands despite tragic losses. The UNSC _Spirit of Fire_ goes missing while tailing a Covenant destroyer. It is presumed lost with all hands.

**-December 27****th****-** The first group of Spartan-IIIs, known as Alpha Company, were sent to _Onyx_ to be trained at Camp Currahee. They were led by Kurt-051 a SPARTAN-II operating under the pseudonym 'Ambrose.' Of the 497 candidates who were conscripted, only 300 became SPARTANs.

**2535 AD**

**-August 30****th****-** In the hopes of slowing the Covenant tide across Human space, the 'Cole Protocol' is established to safe guard any information falling into Covenant hands, critically the location of Sol and subsequently _Earth_.

**-November 16****th****\- **The UNSC barely prevents a famine across Human worlds through strict rationing as they try and build up 2 more food-basket worlds _Camelot_ and _New Oslo_ to replace the decimated _Harvest._

* * *

[Hope?]

**2541 AD**

**-October 27****th****\- **A mining town on _Mars_ in proximity to the infamous Promethei Planum, an area known for its magnetic disturbances, discovers a massive subterranean instillation near the Deseado Crater after a fatal mining accident with some of their machinery.

The entire Sol system is thrown into lockdown and the UNSC on high alert when the ruins are determined to be most definitely alien in nature, and _ancient_. Xenophobic and militaristic leanings increase as a result when the news is 'accidently' leaked a few days later.

**-December 3****rd****-** After a month of dedicated, round the clock, work of multiple xeno-biologists and AI's, the structure is named the 'Prothean archives' after its builders, and the strange element found to be creating the disturbances is called 'Element Zero' or Eezo. Work continues to decode the archives and reverse engineer the 3 ships found within the structure.

**2542 AD**

**-February 14****th****\- **After more months of intensive research, (with several explosive results) UNSC scientists create a working ME-based FTL drive that, once tested aboard a Charon-class Light Frigate, works in real space. Theorists ponder how this was used to travel between stars due to its low speed of 12 LY per day. While certainly faster than the UNSC's 2.625 LY/D (3 LY/D for faster ships), ships using the ME drives have to stop to release built up heat after 2 days drastically increasing travel time. It is thus disregarded as a replacement for the Shaw-Fujikawa drive currently used aboard Human ships, military and domestic alike, and effort is therefore aimed at combining the two into a feasible hybrid.

**-February 27****th****\- **'Kinetic barriers' systems are first created and tested for use on both soldiers and ships. Although far from effective against Covenant plasma weaponry, it's heralded as groundbreaking in the progress towards closing the gap technologically between Humans and the Covenant, specifically the energy shields.

**2543 AD**

**-January 14****th****-** Research fuelled by desperation as Human lives are lost in the billions due to the Covenant advance, finally yield results in the first hybrid between Human and the newer Mass Effect technology. The 'Eezo-Slipspace-Drive_3' or just 'ESD_3' is manufactured and tested aboard the same ship the pure ME drive was tested on. The results broke even the highest expectations.

The new drive can travel at 650 LY/D for even the slowest of ships with increase of up to 200 LY/D for the faster ships, depending on class. While still short of Covenant standards, that drastically improves travel time between systems therefore increasing the chances that a besieged colony can receive reinforcements. However like the ME drives it is still limited by its heat build up, although at 5 days rather than 2, due to the already high thermal radiation and energy the Shaw-Fujikawa drive needed to compensate for. A small tech company, 'Black Matter Inc', volunteers to take up the project of increasing that time or eliminating it entirely.

**-April 1****st****-** Nicknamed the 'April Fool's Offensive', the immensely upgraded Battlegroup: INDIA (Comprised of 162 Ships) underneath Admiral Cole initiates OPERATION: TURNING POINT. The first action is to relive the besieged colony world of _Axium_, a world commonly known to be extremely rich in Tungsten, one of the main ores used in the construction of MAC ammo.

The battle is a crushing victory, with the Covenant leader completely unprepared for a reinforcement fleet to jump in. All 13 of the Covenant vessels are destroyed in the short battle with only 4 UNSC vessels taken out in comparison. The Kinetic barriers prove their worth in the battle as the increased distance between the barriers and the armour plating of the ships meant that heat had a greater distance to dissipate, this afforded more vessels valuable time to retreat from the line of fire. Morale across Human worlds increases as a result, most notably the Navy.

**-April 13****th****\- **With the first action of OPERATION: TURNING POINT complete, the next move was to lure a larger Covenant fleet into a trap. The plan was almost called off when the ploy worked almost too well as a fleet numbering over 300 vessels of various sizes entered the system. Cole, confident of their chances however, sprung the trap throwing Battlegroups: Charlie and Theta (Comprised of just 117 and 127 vessel respectively) at the Covenant fleet catching them in a pincer.

The battle was costly, with Battlegroup: Charlie almost entirely wiped out as the Covenant fleet tried to force a breach and both India and Theta losing over a third of their own vessels, but was a decisive victory for the Humans with 357 Covenant vessels destroyed and 2 captured (A corvette and a cruiser), albeit heavily damaged, due to the work of ODST and SPARTAN teams working in tandem. Surprisingly without much complaint from either branch of the military.

* * *

[Resurgence]

**2544 AD**

**-March 1****st****\- **On a routine patrol mission on the edge of the Sol system picked up anomalies coming from Pluto's moon Charon. After a few days of investigation UNSC scientists accidently triggered it revealing a Mass Relay of the secondary variant. HIGHCOM is once again thrown into panic, as they realized that the Covenant had a back door into the Sol system if they were aware of the relays.

When a Paris-Class frigate, UNSC _Maui_, travels through the relay it reaches the Arcturus System in the blink of an eye. Thankfully in the 'opposite' direction that ONI had speculated the Covenant Empire dwelled and their advancing fleets.

Many wonder why they hadn't discovered the Mass relay before since they'd been space fairing for close to 500 years. Theorists put forwards the idea that because they hadn't known Eezo existed before they couldn't have detected the unique readings of the relay. It was after all an accident they discovered the archives at all.

A flotilla of 15 ships is swiftly formed to begin mapping out the space on the other side of the relay, thousands of light years away from the increasingly gruelling war.

**-March 7****th****\- **The Covenant Corvette (CDF-Class Corvette as they found out in their databases), becomes the main focus of the UNSC scientists as they race to reverse engineer the technology aboard, most importantly the anti-torpedo 'counter guiding signals' that the Covenant employ to avoid attacking their own ships. Attention is also diverted towards the energy shields aboard every Covenant vessel, although little headway is made in this area due to the condition the two ships were in when captured.

**-April 15****th****-** The reverse engineering of the 3 Prothean ships found in the archives bears fruits as they gain a better understanding of 'Kinetic Barriers', the scientists believe that they may be able to apply the theory behind the barriers to the Covenant energy shields.

**-April 29****th****-** More of the space behind the relays is explored revealing more planets and resource rich systems, Element Zero is more common in these parts to the relief of the UNSC who struggled to find many deposits currently in or near Human controlled space.

**-August 7****th****-** With their newfound popularity due to the evening odds, the UNSC abolished the civilian UEG government permanently. Free of the civilian protest, the usage of mass nuclear weapons, torture of prisoners, mass executions and the classified research into the NOVA project gets underway with less than a bat of an eye from all branches of the military.

**-October 31****st****-** Although reluctant to admit, the UNSC Navy and Army simply isn't large enough to cover all the ground needed to sufficiently protect all the Outer Colonies. Eager to keep the growing popularity for a military led government, HIGHCOM begins Operation: HAVEN, Operation: CLOACK AND DAGGER and finally Operation: CASTRUM. The first is the four year long task of relocating all of the population and industry of the outer colonies into the new Haven sector beyond the relays in the hopes of saving them and keeping the industrial might of the Outer Colonies fairly intact so that it would keep providing the UNSC war machine without any danger of being found.

The second would work in tandem with the first. Headed by Admiral Cole, he and 4 others will distract the encroaching Covie forces and led them into traps where they have an overwhelming advantage, asteroid fields laced with nuclear mines, dummy planets and everything that goes with it enlightens the species of the Covenant of Human guerrilla warfare who have only gotten more ruthless as the war progressed.

The third and final operation is a plan to strengthen up the colony worlds that will border the Covenant Empire once the Outer Colonies are fully evacuated with defenses. Each planet, totaling at 17, is to have a grid of at least 20 ODP's along with fighter stations and an accompanying fleet of 150 warships. 5 more plants at even enough intervals behind the line, _Paris IV – New Rome – Trappist Prime – Meridian – Eos_, are designated to be turned into fortress worlds beaten only by Reach and Earth herself. Each planet is to have a grid of 75 ODP's and fighter stations, a fleet of 250 ships and the infrastructure to support a QRF (Quick Response Fleet) so that they may quickly get to any system under siege and reinforce it.

**-November 2****nd****-** The Colonia Defense Act is put in place with orders that each colony must maintain, arm and train a militia to aid UNSC forces in the event of a Covenant attack, mandatory conscription is also put in place for all Men and Women between the ages 25 and 60 barring special conditions*. You can either serve in the CDM (Colonial Defense Militia) for a period of 7 years, Army for 5 years or Navy & Marines of 4 years. For those that cannot fight they are sent to the LogiCom (Logistics Command, originally only for the navy under NavLogCom but has since been expanded for the whole of the military), those who would do well to serve in other places like the UNSC Research Department, Department of Health, or even ONI, are exempt from the years of service and instead create contracts with the intended destination.

**2545 AD**

**-January 1****st****-** On the morning of the New Year HIGHCOM brought back a family incentive from the colonisation boom back in the late 2300's. The Child Bill _encourages _each family to have multiple children to keep up the population that's already severely depleted, of course they can't just force children onto people so the bill came with many concessions. For example financial support for each child they have, and if both parents serve in the military, one parent is always on leave while the other is not, and even in some cases allows both parents present as the same time.

This of course almost collapsed the Logistics Command as they tried to organise this but the effort was worth it after they got a hang of the new system.

**-Jaruary 28****th****-** The manic pace of research set by UNSC scientists finally pays off with the creation of the 'Mk.1 Plasma Torpedo Counter Targeting System', PTCTS Mk.1, or just TCS Mk.1. It would 'detect' the torpedo's and create a type of virus that would surround the ship for roughly 20 seconds, this bubble would blind the torpedo's or even cause them to prematurely explode away from the ship. Granted it didn't always work with a fail rate of 43% but for the first iteration it greatly increased a ship's survival chances. It was also discovered to work sometimes against energy projectors setting scientists amok as they tried to recreate it.

**-May 5****th****\- **Kinetic barrier systems finally finish installing aboard 90% of UNSC warships, a full year before the expected date. Along with the TCS, this gives the UNSC Navy a fighting chance in a straight ship to ship battle, whereas before a 5-1 ratio is needed only a 3-1 is safely required. This greatly lifts the burden on the industry currently pumping out ships as fast as the materials arrive.

**-May 7****th****-** Study begins on energy projectors, the only weapon that completely bypasses the barriers, and pulse lasers taken from the Covenant CRS-Class cruiser

**-June 18****th****-** Covenant forces attack _Actium_ and _Draco III_, although the attack on _Draco III_ is repelled by a QRF under Vice Admiral Reaves along with the 7th Fleet under Vice Admiral Stanforth.

Despite the QRF headed to _Actium_ arriving it is forced to retreat after grievous losses including its leader Rear Admiral Hall, and the arrival of the 5th Fleet led by Admiral Drescher only manages to scare of the remnants of a fleet that had already glassed the planet.

**-August 1****st****-** As a placeholder for a new government, the High Admiralty is formed as a Military Junta with High Admiral Hood at its head. Despite its name, ground based personnel are also included on the committee including a liaison from both the R&D Department and ONI. In lieu of the senatorial government, the DPA (Department of Planetary Affairs) is formed to take care governing each of the colonies in Human space, they also possess a liaison on the committee to keep any protestors quiet.

**-September 6****th****\- **_Terra Nova_, is settled in the Asgard system beyond the relays, the first of many, as such it will serve as the capital of the Haven Sector, and will become a backup capital world in the worst case scenario of both _Earth_ and _Reach_ falling.

While this is happening, plans are drawn up for a 32Km station to be built in the Arcturus system to serve as a base for the UNSC in the area. A bonus of this is the fact that through the relays, _Earth_ is only a single jump away allowing for quick reinforcements in the eventuality that the Human homeworld ever be attacked.

**-November 17****th****-** After the settling of _Terra Nova_, the UNSC begins another massive construction project, or rather 3. Called the Daedalus Project, the end goal is to create three orbital ship yards in a ring surrounding the major fortress worlds of _Earth_, _Reach _and _Terra Nova_.

The end goal is to have the ship yards possessing the capability to churn out hundreds, possibly thousands of ships a _week_.

**2546 AD**

**-April 27****th****-** Many researchers predict a breakthrough in shield technology.

**-June 13****th****-** As more and more Covenant attacks are repelled, and the efforts towards building up the Inner Colony defences progresses, ONI prowlers are sent into the void to scout for Covenant worlds.

**-June 17****th****-** Vice Admiral Whitecomb and his science team complete the prototype for the NOVA bomb.

**-November 28****th****\- **_Sargasso_ is attacked by the Covenant and the small fleet of ships guarding it is destroyed. The planet is saved by a reinforcing 6th Fleet, but the planet's population of 51 million is reduced to measly 2 million.

**-December 5****th****-** Another, larger, fleet of Covenant ships attack _New Llanelli_, destroying the defending fleet like at Sargasso however this time the response comes quicker and the Covenant ground forces barely set up a FOB before they are kicked out the system.

**-December 26****th****-** _Ruthersberg _and_ Sansar _are glassed with no survivors.

**-December 30****th****\- **_Paradise Falls_ is also attacked while in the midst of Operation: HAVEN, a good portion of the population makes it away while the fleet in orbit buys them time. However near 20 million are still killed, and the defensive fleet is wiped to the vessel.

**2547 AD**

**-January 1****st****-** After reviewing combat footage from _Sargasso_ and _Paradise Falls_ they noticed one of the main reasons the Covenant won was through sheer force of numbers rather than technologically as it was before, where Human experience, training and sheer stubbornness won the day.

A small group of scientists take up the project to make a working combat droid, capable of deploying alongside infantry to supplement their numbers.

**-April 9****th****-** ONI prowlers sent in search of Covenant worlds return bearing results. Several worlds in the fringes of Covenant space are colonies of the various species that make up the Covenant as well as frontline supply bases.

Without even a second thought, the orders come through and NOVA's are dropped on nearly a dozen colonies worlds. Over 4 Billion Covenant causalities are noted and recorded, fed back to Human space where a blood thirsty Humanity cheer and party as the Covenant get a taste of their own medicine.

**-July 16****th****-** More worlds are settled in the Haven sector bringing up the total to 7. Another 7 more are planned to bring the number up to 14, all of which should comfortably hold the numbers of the Outer Colonies with space for them to grow and house their revitalized industry. Already resources are being funnelled back through the relays and to the war.

**-October 19****th****-** The attack on the Covenant worlds seems to have made them falter in their advance and for a few months nothing happens other than a few probing attacks. This gives the UNSC time to complete the first stages of Operation: CASTRUM. The 17 frontline plants have their ODP grids completely built and the last of the ships to serve as their defence flotillas are arriving and being assigned accordingly. Work however is still needed on the 5 back-up fortress worlds.

**-December 23****th****-** The efforts into the CRS-Class Cruiser pays off as the Covenant Repulsor Engines are reverse engineered. Along with the revelation come their inertial dampeners and further insight to their reactors. The latter allowed further improvements to their own.

The new engines while not ground breaking allows Human ships a greater level of speed and therefore evasion and is thus declared a success.

**-December 28****th****\- **Calls by the Sangheili to head to total war footing is dismissed by the High Prophets of Truth, Mercy and Regret who all fear more power will fall in the hands of the Elites if they were to do so. However to keep the peace they increase their production lines and authorise a few fleets to be taken out of mothball.

**2548 AD**

**-January 4****th****-** The entire R&D department, no, the entire UNSC celebrates as the first pure energy shield is installed and tested aboard 5 decommissioned UNSC frigates.

The shields although weak compared to Covenant standards, are surprisingly tougher than expected. When tested they stood up to two full frigate sized barrages of Archer missiles and a single SHIVA-Class Nuke when detonated a significant distance away. They didn't however stand up to a direct hit from the same class of nuke and only barely fell short of deflecting a frigate class MAC round. Not that they were expecting such it is still ground breaking and finally things are looking up for the war.

Now the UNSC's task is to outfit the entire Navy with the new 'Series 1 – Plasma Deflector Shields' while the R&D resumes work to both improve them and to try and minimise them on a small scale for infantry and vehicle purposes.

Both logistics and resources are stretched as ships are pulled off the line and refitted with the shields and new engines. Production of newer ships is delayed as the production now includes the newer components.

**-January 5****th****-** With the main target of UNSC R&D now accomplished it can now turn to the armour that surrounds Covenant ships, hoping to replicate it for their own shipboard hulls and SPARTAN power armours. Progress is slow unfortunately, and they are quietly told to focus on improving and minimising the energy shields, but work is to continue nonetheless.

**-May 13****th****\- **With a lull still present in Covenant attacks, more ships are sent to Covenant space again and nearly a dozen colonies are nuked and NOVA'ed from orbit. This attack alone raises the Covenant death count by 3 Billion, the total is 9 Billion deaths for the Covenant only 2 Billion lower than the Human 11 Billion.

**-May 15****th****-** Two days after the attack on the Covenant worlds, 5 Human ones come under attack. There are no survivors.

**-August 7****th****-** Medigel is created by the makers of Biofoam. The two in tandem reduce deaths from battlefield wounds by almost 80%, and allows a speedy recovery from soldiers looking to return to the fight quickly.

**-October 6****th****-** The final planets in the Haven sector are completely settled bringing the total to 14. There are no further plans for expansion as the planets are already sufficient enough for the colonists to live comfortably, the industry has started to reach peak efficiency and soon the UNSC will be bolstered by its might.

Arcturus station is 24% complete.

The baseline skeleton structure of the Daedalus shipyards is halfway complete.

**-December 9****th****-** The UNSC are caught on the back foot when a Covenant armada numbering over 500 vessels pierces the frontline at _Skopje_ and _New Lancaster_, completely laying waste to the ODP grid and defence flotillas, a dozen ships stay behind to combat the UNSC presence stubbornly holding out on _Skopje_ while the rest continues on to _Paris IV, _whose own ODP grid and fleet had yet to be completed numbering only 47 and 179 respectively. Although putting up a fight both are destroyed and the planet is besieged like at _Skopje_. The armada splits like before and continues onto more inner colonies.

No less than 7 Inner colonies are attacked before 3rd and 7th fleets managed to halt their advance with great losses.

* * *

[An even fight]

**2549 AD **

**-January 17****th****-** Co-ordinated from Earth, the largest counter attack in Human history to date began. Multiple QRF fleets under various Admirals relieved the colonies being sieged by smaller splinter fleets. Here many unknown Admirals on the lower spectrum made a name for themselves, such as Rear Admiral Hackett who led his 17th QRF against multiple Covenant flotillas after the 9th and 21st QRF's failed their objectives.

Admiral Cole led the 4th, 5th, and 8th fleets against the biggest fleet still present over _Paris IV _and relieved it, only half the 1.1 Billion population was saved however.

From there Cole led the 4th and 5th, the weakest of the 3 after the liberation of _Paris _IV, and retook _Skopje_, which to the surprise of Cole still held out. Although Colonel Miers was KIA when orbital bombardment collapsed the bunker he and his command staff were in, a Major Williams took command of the garrison and led a desperate guerrilla war against Covenant ground forces. When Cole arrived to relieve them barley 1000 were still relatively standing to protect 9 Million civilians out of the near 50 that the _Skopje_ garrison contained, and none were without wounds. For their valour each received the Medal of Honour and the Purple Heart and Major Williams was promoted to Colonel.

Admiral Drescher led the 8th Fleet in the recapturing of _New Lancaster_. It was unfortunately a lost cause as the planet's garrison had long since fallen and the planet was in the process of being glassed. Less than 4000 civilians were rescued out of 42 Million.

These battles also served to properly field tested the 'S1 – PDS', which although exceeded expectations against their own weapons only survived 2 plasma torpedoes or 3/4 depending on the size of ship. Energy projectors still proved the death of many a ship as the shields proved all but useless against them, and the pulse lasers could also punch through after sustained fire.

**-February 1****st****-** At the monthly meeting of the High Admiralty, a former senator of the UEG called John Doe hijacked the live feed to the rest of Human space when they were reporting the past months actions.

John Doe attempted to revitalize the Human spirit for democracy but only succeeded in gaining a few followers for he chose the exact moment that UNSC HIGHCOM was reporting the valiant actions of Hackett and Williams on the reclamation of the Inner Colonies a month prior.

He was captured later that day and was tried and summarily executed for treason and sedition later that month.

**-March 11****th****-** New techniques using Element Zero in the industry allows them to construct ships faster due to the use of the Mass Effect fields in moving materials and even entire ship sections. This and the recent influx of ships from the Haven sector boosts the UNSC's depleting Navy, especially after the past few months of hard skirmishing and battles. Each ship upgraded with the recent developments in ship to ship warfare curtsey of the UNSC R&D.

**-March 14****th****-** UNSC R&D create a prototype shield that should be capable of covering and protecting entire cities from orbital bombardment. The current issues lie with its weakness and power consumption.

**-March 23****rd**** \- **The final Outer Colonies are evacuated to either under populated Inner Colonies or the Haven Sector. Now with less ground to cover the UNSC can focus on holding the now named 'Stalingrad Line' as more and more Covenant scouts skirmish with patrol groups every week.

The ODP grids and defence flotillas of the 5 stronghold planets are competed by sacrificing those of the more secure Inner Colony worlds like _Earth_ and _Reach_, whose grids are already being replenished thanks to the streamlined production.

**-May 10****th****-** Humanities version of the plasma torpedo is devised. Rather than using advanced magnetic technology to contain the plasma and guide it, they use the same Mass Effect fields used in FTL travel. Obviously rather than disappearing into FTL they accelerate to higher speeds therefore yielding higher payloads, their downside is a slower fire rate at only 3 per minute and can only be used on Cruiser tonnage and above, needing its own ME core to power without compromising the backup Kinetic Barriers. This meant that current Destroyer and Frigate classes would be unable to use the torpedoes effectively without comprising their defences. Something that the UNSC refused to do.

As a compromise the Archer II-Plasma Cluster Missile (PCM) was devised. The missiles would be fired like normal from aboard a Destroyer or Frigate but as they neared a target the missile would detonate a secondary charge and 5 small plasma torpedoes would be fired from the housing instead and impact the enemy ship. They worked similarly to the torpedoes, a small plasma charge encased in a ME field which was created from a smaller generator further back in the body. This however meant that the cluster effect had a limited time to act before the charge ran out and dissipated harmlessly meaning that if the missile missed there was no chance to re-target like with the original Archer.

**-May 20****th****-** While looking into improving the plasma torpedo, R&D accidently created the plasma beam. The original thought was to transport the torpedo along a 'flight path' of a projected ME field, but rather than guiding a single mass of plasma to the target it elongated it into a single beam. After further testing the beam could be sustained for certain amounts of time and deal varying amounts of damage depending on the power output, it could either be used as a surgical strike to take out key targets or even the use of orbital bombardment, although the latter obviously is only on paper at the moment. Also unfortunately the plasma beam has the same power issue that the torpedo has faced so Destroyers and Frigates must remain content with their MAC as their main offensive weapon.

**-June 7****th****-** With numbers being replenished at a reasonable rate, and technology advancing as well, HIGHCOM decided it was high time to start investing in new ship classes.

Thus began Project: PHOENIX.

Each ship class is designed with the newer technology and built with the thought of continuous upgrades in mind unlike the current generation, which would hopefully decreases the costs of doing so in the future.

The first to be designed, or rather revisited, was a new capital ship, one to replace both the old and venerable Halcyon and the newer more powerful Marathon. Originally designed as a light cruiser with speed and mobility in mind, as at the time of its original conception shield technology was still in the early stages, after however the need for a tank in space was ideal, one that could go toe to toe with the most common of Covenant capital ships and come out the superior.

The Gladiator-Class Battlecruiser was just under 1.9Km long. Armed with the current Point Defence Guns as the supplementary ship to ship cannons, the main armament was 2 standard Cruiser strength MAC's at the prow. Also with the newer weapon technology it also boasted 2 dedicated plasma beam emplacement's, or plasma lances as they were formally named, at a specific point on the top and bottom of the ship giving them free lines of fire all around the ship. In addition it had 8 plasma torpedo pods and an extra 175 Archer-II PCM's and 25 Howler pods for support. A downside was that due to the size two ME cores were needed to power the Element Zero systems on board, one for the weapons and shields and one for the ESD_9, the newest rendition of the hybrid drive that had a longer jump timer of 7 days. The cost of this made the UNSC thankful that they hadn't completely abandoned their own technology in favour of Eezo as building any ship over 1Km would have not only crippled their economy but the war as well, a point they thankfully spotted in the early days after the archives were discovered.

The Gladiator-Class would serve as the mainline capital ship for the UNSC Navy as the last remaining Halcyon's and Marathons were retired or relegated to colony defence, and in some cases scrapped for materials, earning its stripes as one of the most decorated and finest ships in Human space.

**-July 2****nd****-** The Longbow-Class Frigate enters service. Designed as a long range support ship it has a MAC cannon usually reserved for those on cruisers and a secondary armament of 50 Archer II-PCM's and even 2 Plasma torpedo pods. As it's designed for long range combat, a sniper if you will, at close range it practically useless as power had to be diverted away from the shields and PDG's to power the PT's and MAC. While not always useful while attacking, the Longbow saw most of its action as a colony defence ship.

**-September 26****th****-** Despite their best efforts, R&D are yet unable to replicate the Covenant Nanolaminate Armour. However the research into it serves to further their knowledge of their own armour and Titanium A3 is devised, a mixture 20% stronger than A2 plating and a healthy margin more resistant to heat. It is however time consuming to create so only cruisers and above will utilize it. Destroyers and Frigates will use a cheaper A3b, which although weaker should still be more resistant to heat.

**-October 11****th**** -** An even weaker version is created to be used for infantry purposes. Infantry Battle Plating is a dummy mix of A3 and A3b, although it comes nowhere near to the armour for starships it is a significant grade up from the current protection, the militaries grunts all breathe a sigh of relief when the news is released.

**2550 AD**

**-February 16****th****\- **After a few months the Infantry Combat Suit (ICS) is designed, a suit of armour that works similarly to the SPARTAN's MJOLNIR armour. The armour is made to boost the users speed and strength, and a new Head's Up Display (HUD) with an improved Visual Intelligence Display (VID). The suit also contains a small shield generator, that while only lasts a few shots, for a infantry fighting force that's already experts at fighting from cover, the those precious shots would save a lot of lives.

A stronger, more expensive suit is also designed for Special Forces like ODST and Army Rangers. However due to the large amount of troops in the UNSC military only the Marines and Special Forces would be fully equipped by the end of the year, the Army is too numerous to equip on a short amount of time.

**-April 29****th**** \- **Attempts have been made at augmenting the current MAC's with Eezo have thus far proven difficult. While it is theoretically possible, the lightest ammunition is 600 tons on the frigates and using Eezo to fire that simply isn't cost effective. There was a proposition to reduce the weight of the shell to make it cheaper but that would mean changing out all current MAC's and switching over entire production lines that would become redundant. A small industrial company, Shepard Defence Systems, takes up the project.

**-May 17****th****-** The High Prophets, beginning to realise how much of a threat the Humans may pose if they allowed the stalemate to continue, start a large ship building project and authorize a more mothballed fleets to come into service.

Under the pretence of relieving the increase burden of command on the Sangheili, the prophets start to delegate some duties to the Jiralhanae (Brutes) to minimise the growing power of the Sangheili.

**-August 28****th****\- **Two destroyers, Aegis-Class and Lancer-Class, become stuck in blueprints as they were meant to make use of the new MAC stuck in development and so are stuck in limbo for the time being.

**-October 19****th****\- **R&D reverse engineer the Covenant Pulse Lasers, alone they would do little damage so much so that at the moment they are considered useless in ship to ship combat even when grouped in batteries. For the time being they are relegated to simple fighter defence while scientists try and improve the strength of the lasers.

As a side note, some scientists are wondering if this could be applied on a smaller level for vehicles and infantry.

**2551 AD**

**-March 28****th****-** As skirmishes rage across both Human and Covenant fringe worlds, the UNSC is in the best position since the war started 26 years ago. The war forward looks bloody but bright when ONI prowlers discover more Covenant fringe planets, forward outposts and _Bahalo_, the Unggoy (Grunts) Homeworld.

**-April 4****th****-** For the past week a fierce debate raged in the High Admiralty on what to do with the knowledge of a Covenant homeworld. Some like the Navy Admirals debated for simply attacking and NOVAing the planet from orbit. Others like the Army Generals want to capture the planet or at least kidnap enough Unggoy to breed them as cannon fodder for their own military.

**-July 9****th****-** ONI hackers manage to decode part of the Covenant slipspace exit protocols. Again nothing like their Covenant ones, the new system limits drift upon exiting slipspace allowing UNSC vessels to enter a system in formation rather than random points, though some vessels will still require reposition it is minimised to a few minutes rather than 10-20 beforehand.

**-September 30****th****\- **While UNSC Naval doctrine focuses mainly on 'Grand Battle Plan' and strength of numbers to win engagements with the Covenant in space; the need for more heavy hitters is evident as their enemy begins to field larger warships more commonly. The reasons currently unknown to UNSC HIGHCOM.

Although designed and used before the war the Punic, Valiant and Epoch classes were already Covenant killers in their own right before the modern upgrades. With the advancing tech, this has only increased and with a static line rather than a fighting retreat, the UNSC can afford to field more of these types of ships.

With the new/old ships coming into service another modern design comes into the field. The UNSC Resolute-Class Battleship was a large undertaking because of its 3.8Km length, overtaking the previous holder of the longest military vessel the Punic which was 3.2Km.

The Resolute was a fleet of its own with 3 MACs as its primary armament, with 10 new Mini MAC or 'Onagers', that would usually only be seen on stations or as base defence for important ground instillations as its secondary choice. 5 Plasma Lance emplacements, 14 Plasma Torpedo banks, 150 Archer II missiles pods, 50 Howler Missile pods and 30 Pulse Laser Batteries (A battery is a group of six).

The vessel was also a tank in a league of its own. The shielding was above and beyond anything the UNSC had fielded before. It was able to tank an entire energy projector to the face and relatively shrug it off, albeit with heavily depleted shields. Underneath that were Kinetic barriers that needed two whole ME cores on their own to run, making the total 3 for the whole ship, and if both of those layers of defence were breached than it used the infamous honeycomb super structure of the Halcyon to simply absorb shots that would have split a normal vessel from end to end. However it was not only extremely slow but had limited space for strike craft, only able to field 2 wings of Longswords and a group of Pelicans, the use of fighters being shifted exclusively to carriers now.

Due to the cost of the ship being more than an entire QRF of frigates, not many could be built in a short amount of time. Two served as the flagships of both the _Earth_ and _Reach_ defence fleets. Another would become Fleet Admiral Cole's personal flagship.

**-October 9****th****\- **A new breed of warship is ridiculously small considering the current state of the war.

At 343m the Riptide-Class corvette was too small to even have a MAC cannon of significant strength mounted on the prow. To replace the current Gladius-Class the ease manufacture and cheapness of the vessel means that it can be built quickly and in large quantities. Specialised dockyards allow for a dozen to be built simultaneously. These swarms of corvettes are specifically made for the defence of colonies in mind and allows for more frigates and destroyers to be moved to frontline combat.

**-October 14****th****-** A leak from inside ONI displays just how corrupt the organisation has become. It revealed that during the battle for _New Lancaster_, an ONI prowler was present in the system to evacuate Misriah Armoury employees, including the company's heir. The report implicates Admiral Parangosky as the authority behind the operation and the High Admiralty have no choice but to arrest the leader of ONI and shut down the department until a full investigation into its operations is completed.

Unfortunately when the operation to arrest Parangosky goes ahead, the former Admiral and a significant chunk of her command staff were missing, with no leads on their whereabouts.

SDS, a previously minor company when compared to the likes of Misriah Armoury, bought a significant portion of the company's assets as they are forced to shut down in the wake of the scandal. The move almost bankrupts the family run business but the extra power was worth it in the long run.

**-December 9****th****-** Shepard Defence Systems, prototypes a MAC that utilizes Eezo in its firing mechanism. The original idea was to lower the size the slug and replace some to solenoids in the MAC with ME fields to lower the mass. However this proved expensive, and would require an entire refit of their Navy.

The final prototype was essentially the same but a different method. The magnetic solenoids now also contained a small ME generator, so when a round was fired it also lowered the mass of the shell, in addition the rail that the shell travelled along also was projecting a ME field across its length. This allowed even a frigate class MAC to shoot a 600-ton slug at 0.96% the speed of light (2878Km/s), a mechanism that fires 95 times faster than before and just below 3 quarters slower than a SMAC ODP.

The trouble with the new system was that it required more energy to power and tended to overheat more often. To compensate for this, the capacitors that the MAC's currently used to charge the magnets and absorb the heat are tweaked to be rapidly switched out after each shot rather than waiting for them to charge, rather than being changed out after the current one burns out. This allows a standard MAC to fire every 4-5 seconds rather than every 15. The tactical advantage of the now quick fire MAC is enough to make Navy Admirals salivate, as the new range of the MAC is over 10 times its original distance.

SDS is now trying to make the system compatible with SMAC ODP's which already fire 4% the speed of light without aid from Eezo, tests thus far have proven to be a problem as the system literally shoots itself to pieces.

**2552 AD**

**-January 1****st****-** With a lull in the fighting the High Admiralty finally commit to creating a new government. The original purpose of the Military Junta was for it to lead in the war and then reform the UEG after the war. However, several people disagreed saying that Humanity needed a point to rally to. Not a leadership that would serve its purpose and then disappear.

The Human Directorate of Earth is basically the High Admiralty on a more official and grander scale. High Admiral Hood was officially instated as the leader, during and hopefully after the war to represent Humanity on the galactic stage. The Admiralty became the security council with more representatives being introduced and with it more people got a say in the running's of the new HDE.

**-April 29****th****-** The Great War 'evens out' as the UNSC begins probing attacks against Covenant frontier colonies. While these attacks have no purpose other than to test Covenant defences it shows the turning tides of the war.

Although the Human causality count says otherwise.

**-August 1****st****-** Operation: BLACK EYE is a-go. On the turn of the month the 'First Strike Armada' consisting of over 500 vessels, (4th, 5th, 7th, 10th, 14th, 21st Fleets as well as various QRFs) is split into four sections. The first three, consisting of only 100 vessels each, dummy attack three large Covenant colonies to draw away Covenant patrols.

After the battles are in full swing, the largest section jumps into the system containing the Unggoy homeworld and sweep aside the defending fleet and defences with relative ease. When the system was cleared, 50 Phoenix refit vessels jumped into the system laden with Army and Marine troopers. The idea of the operation was to force a beach head and capture as many grunts as they could pack back onto the ships to breed for their own uses. Mainly as cannon fodder.

It wasn't to be however. Only a few hours after landfall, little progress had been made due to unexpected resistance from the Grunts who used their numbers to great effect. Things got even worse when a Covenant fleet jumped into the system, despite this being a minor homeworld in the grand scheme of things, it was a homeworld none the less and the fleet numbered easily over 400 vessels.

The fleet, even with the upgrades, didn't stand a chance at beating the fleet and quickly bugged out the system, but not before dropping a NOVA on the Unggoy homeworld, destroying what was left of the already devastated planet. Barely 3000 grunts were captured and despite early successes Operation: BLACK EYE is declared a failure.

**-December 7****th****-** With the failure of Operation: BLACK EYE, the grunts currently in their possession are too few to serve their main purpose as it would take years to build up their numbers to the standard they need even with their high breeding rate. Years they may not have.

So UNSC scientists used their captives for another purpose. Test subjects. The Security Council determined that if they couldn't use the Unggoy as cannon fodder than they couldn't allow the Covenant access to them either, their sheer numbers are and would continue to overwhelm their positions. So in secret they developed a virus that would gradually reduce the number of offspring of the grunts during breeding to only a few surviving young per clutch.

The virus after testing is completed is tweaked to have an incubation period of a few months and the Unggoy in captivity are knocked unconscious and have their memory wiped of their imprisonment. A few former ONI prowlers are commandeered and transport the Unggoy to multiple large colonies in secret.

**2553 AD**

**-January 5****th****-** Another new year bring new changes to the UNSC fleet. The Aegis and Lancer-Class Destroyers officially enter service with the new MAC finally being designed and manufactured. The Aegis-Class is 885m in length and armed primarily with laser batteries as an anti-fighter ship to replace the Stalwart-Class Frigate as the main escort vessel, the Lancer-Class and 759m is one that works best in groups. Its powerful cruiser weight MAC allows groups of 3-5 to take on the larger vessels and still come out on top.

**-January 30****th****-** The first instance of Infantry Battle Droid (IBD) being used in combat is marked with mild success. The droid on their own are practically useless, however much like the grunts are better in large numbers. Armed with standard issue rifles, heat resistant plating and simple kinetic barriers, they're fairly cheap and quick to make. Their programming is basic to allow them to be manufactured in large numbers, so a team of specialists or a Dumb AI controls them from a bunker behind the frontlines.

Human casualties noticeably drop.

**-February 3****rd****\- **After the demonstration of the IBD, several colonies build factories primarily to build the droid.

**-May 7****th****-** After the full investigation into the actions of ONI the division is disbanded and replaced by Human Military Intelligence & Special Operations Command. (HMISOC or referred to as just HMI). It's divided into separate branches, Section 1: Military Intelligence, Section 2: Internal Affairs, Section 3: Special Projects, Section 4: Special Operations. The new intelligence division is headed by Jack Harper and operates directly under High Admiral Hood to avoid any other 'ONI' incidents.

**-July 23****rd****-** SDS unveils the Mark I Stryker Plasma Naval Cannon to replace the still kinetic Spitfire Navel Cannons that the Navy had been using even in the face of upgrading weaponry. The Stryker worked in a similar fashion to the Plasma torpedoes, they encased a mass of plasma in an ME field and shot it towards the enemy, however unlike the torpedoes they only fired in a straight line and were slower moving. There were two versions of the Stryker, the Heavy and the Light. The Light is fires faster but weaker bolts of plasma and therefore consumes less energy to fire, thus it is primarily mounted on Frigates and Destroyers. The Heavy is 'heavier' and fires slower but stronger bolts and is therefore mounted on Cruisers and up, generally with Light Stryker's as supplement.

After their introduction, it hails the end for kinetic warfare in space other than the MAC.

**-October 15****th****-** Plans are drawn up for a SPARTAN-IV program as the last III's enter service, this time however the HDE is considering taking adult volunteers.

**-November 19****th****-** A development off the Stryker is the Hoplite Defence Platform. The weakness on just using the SMAC OPD's is the fact that against boarding parties and fighter craft it's practically defenceless. So to solve that they created another ODP, that's basically a Stryker on a platform with 5 pulse lasers arranged around it. (Imagine a 5 pointed star with the Stryker in the middle) The end goal is to have enough that each SMAC ODP will be able to have a support of 3-5 HDP's.

**2554 AD**

**-February 27****th****-** The Eion-Class Light Carrier enters service along with two new breeds of fighter craft and one technically. The first is a new multirole Fighter, the F-41 Broadsword is rated for both atmosphere and space and becomes the UNSC's mainstay fighter in place of the now dated Longsword. The second is the Interceptor I-17 Katana, which serves primarily as an interceptor in space but can serve as a bomber for anti-ship missions. Both fighters are single man and have a smaller profile than the former Longsword allowing the carriers to the carry more into battle.

The technicality is the Sabre project, which has been in use for nearly a decade now but only as a prototype craft. Despite this the fighters have raised an impressive kill count as a planetary defence craft and officially entered service with the other fighters.

The Eion-Class is only 683m long and serves as a support for mainly patrols due to its weak armament and defences with a light MAC, 4 Pulse laser batteries and 7 Stryker L-PNC's. The shields are also weak and it bares only 2 metres of armour. Its fighter complement however is its strength with 20 Katana Interceptors and 5 Broadsword Fighters for planetary support, mainly when its assists in planetary invasions with the Orion-Class Assault carrier, not that there are many of either.

**-April 17****th****-** A prowler tracks a retreating Covenant skirmishing fleet back to a Covenant world that appears to be some sort of supply hub. A big one, with a population of 3 Billion, it's the largest non-home Covenant world the UNSC has found and it's defended like one.

The prowler at first was simply going to drop a NOVA and be done with it however the Smart AI aboard, Evangeline, hacked into the Covenant battle-net and found out that at the time a Covenant Prophet was visiting the world. Although they couldn't specify whether it was one of the High Prophets or simply part of the council, the chance to nab someone in the highest echelons of the Covenant Hierarchy couldn't be passed up.

**-April 20****th****-** The UNSC tentatively launches Operation: SLEIGHT OF HAND, the problem with the operation is that the target planet is no significant distance behind the frontline of Covenant controlled space, and since there is a Prophet on the planet it is significantly well guarded.

The operation called for a fleet of 400 vessels to create a beachhead for marines and ODST to distract the planet's garrison. While many lives were lost, in both space and on the ground, the distraction allowed a task force of 150 SPARTAN III's and 25 II's to perform a smash and grab of the Prophet.

Although the target proved to be only a minor Prophet, the SPARTAN taskforce manages to acquire data from Covenant computers in the heart of their base, completely unprepared for the attack they hadn't thought of purging their data banks.

The battle also was the first where the IBD are used in a large scale engagement. They were deployed at the end of the battle and allowed Human forces to retreat in an orderly fashion and without any further risk to servicemen's lives.

**-April 21****st****-** SLEIGHT OF HAND is declared a crushing success, the minor Prophet of Belligerence, was a gold mine of information after 'questioning' and reveals a lot of the inner workings of the Covenant, for example their worship of the Forerunners and the High Prophets giving more power to the Brutes.

The most groundbreaking find in the data banks is the discovery of _High Charity_, a massive 348Km space station that serves at the capital for the Covenant.

**-July 25****th**** -** The capture of a member of the High Council, no matter how minor, shakes the Covenant to the core. More fleets are pulled out of mothball however rather than the Sangheili, the Jiralhanae are given command of the fleets instead due to the Elites inability to properly protect Belligerence.

**-September 7****th****-** Kig-Yar raiding fleets become a common occurrence in the recesses of Covenant space as there are fewer fleets patrolling friendly worlds while their attention is away from the home ground and towards the UNSC frontline. Fleets that were previously meant for pressing Human worlds are turned around to deal with the marked increase in piracy. The stalemate continues.

**2555 AD**

**-February 8****th****-** The use of Unggoy in battles has noticeable decreased and UNSC positions aren't being overwhelmed as often. HIGHCOM can only believe this is the work of their virus.

**-May 21****st****-** The Illustrious-Class Frigate enters service. It is made to replace the Paris, Charon and Stalwarts as the backbone of the fleets.

At 627m it remains the smallest mainline vessel in the navy but that doesn't mean it's defenceless. With its larger twin boom and improvements in energy production it allows the frigate to sport dual light MACs instead of one as on previous frigate classes. Secondary armament consists of 5 batteries of Pulse lasers, 20 Stryker L-PNC's and 5 Stryker H-PNC's. And with 75 Archer II pods and 15 Howler pods making up tertiary weapons, the Illustrious can certainly fight evenly with smaller Covenant vessels and support larger classes for bigger targets.

**-August 14****th****-** The HMI, now stabilized under Director Jack Harper, sends legions of Prowlers into Covenant space with the intent to map out the entirety of their empire. Ship building centres, industrial and commercial hubs, species' homeworlds are all priority targets.

**-November 17****th****-** The first incident of biotic power is displayed on Manassas, _Reach_. After investigation, HMI Section 3 determines that the cause of the anomaly is due to Eezo exposure in the womb.

**-November 20****th****-** Director Harper instructs Section 3 to look into artificially creating biotics in humans; the end goal is to have at least a section of SPARTAN IV's to wield the ability.

**-December 21****st****-** Covenant probing attacks pick up in frequency; they curiously display inferior tactics to those normally deployed and upon inspection it's shown that the fleets are dominated by Brutes with little to no Elites present.

**2556 AD**

**-March 7****th****-** The Helix-Class Cruiser takes to the field as the last vessel class part of Operation: PHOENIX.

The Helix is fairly strange when compared to other UNSC classes in its tonnage. Despite being 1.6Km its MAC is a light one usually used aboard Frigates because it's main purpose in the Navy is that of a missile cruiser. Its main method of offence was the 12 Plasma torpedo pods, 200 Archer II, and 50 Howler pods. In addition it carried 15 SHIVA Nuclear warheads and 7 HAVOK's. Due to its larger missile armament its defence had to be slightly downgraded and it has weaker shields and armour than usual and thus tends to stick to the back of a fleet with the carriers.

**-March 28****th****-** With the completion of Operation: PHOENIX, a large ship building project is set in motion to decrease the ratio between capital ships and smaller ships, carriers in particular are set to see a large increase in numbers.

**-April 19****th****-** R&D finally put back together the advanced sensors the Covenant use, the trouble being that on both vessels captured the sensors were damaged beyond belief and engineers since have been working to put the system back to together from other wreaks caused in skirmishes.

The upgrades made to their own sensors now mean that the Navy can now make relatively accurate jumps. Not to the scale of the Covenant mind you but enough that destroyer wolfpacks are much more of a threat to Covenant capital ships since in system jumps are now within the capabilities of Human ships.

**-July 12****th****-** Section 3 determines that biotics can indeed be artificially created in the body. The current theoretical method however is fraught with problems and the implant has high chance of failure with little reward.

As a consequence of the setback the SPARTAN IV program is also delayed.

**-November 23****rd****-** The population boom begins to become a problem larger than the HDE once thought. Although casualties are high, the current Human population isn't insignificant by any amount and in less than a decade things are certainly going to get more crowded to the point of a problem. So another network of relays are opened up and two more colony worlds are settled in the Haven sector, _Shanxi_ and _Elysium_.

There are also plans are also put in motion to resettle some of the outer most worlds in the former Outer Colonies to bridge the gap of territory between the Haven Sector and the Inner Colonies. It is still under consideration.

**2557 AD**

**-January 14****th****-** A decommissioned Paris-Class Frigate comes across strange ship drifting in orbit of a gas giant while probing for Eezo deposits. It's fairly small, just over 200m in length and traces of Element Zero can be found in its hull. Upon closer inspection the ship is organic in nature, with a chitin type structure and armour that's marred with holes and scorch marks.

The captain, against the better judgment of his XO, sends a boarding party aboard the vessel to scout it out, there they discover the remains of a peculiar insect-like race with bodies of varying sizes. After continuous searching of the ship the party eventually discover a clutch of eggs in cryogenic stasis, only one of which gives off life signs when scanned, it is coincidently the largest. About the size of a torso.

Also against the better judgment of the XO, the egg is brought aboard and the ship is towed back to UNSC space.

**-January 15****th****-** The Frigate arrives back in Human space and the HIGHCOM now has to decide what to do with both the ship and the egg, both of which are determined to be at least a couple thousand years old. The obvious decision with the ship was to study it and screen anything they could that could be of use.

The egg was more difficult. Having their first engagement with alien species turn into a genocidal war against their very existence, they were obviously wary of the egg's contents. So for now they returned the egg to cryo, their own this time, and decided to hatch it at a later date if they decide to do so.

**-March 29****th****-** The research into the organic ship yields results. The chitinous armour on the ship although not stronger overall than their own A3 or A3b but it is more structurally sound. Alone chitin is actually rather weak, brittle and easy to melt. However its strength lies in its ability to conform with other segments of chitin armour, like scale armour or the segmented armour the Romans used. When segments interlock it's able to spread the damage along the segment and mitigate most of the impact or heat, although this isn't enough to become superior to A3 or even A3b is a middle ground between them and A2 previously used.

After experimenting a bit they managed to combine the two into a stronger compound, unsurprisingly named A4, together the two seem to be a possible rival to Covenant Nanolaminate armour given more research. Basically the end result is just A3 mixed with chitin. The chitin works in tandem with the A3 to provide armour that can disperse heat easier and can take one hell of a beating, able to take almost double the punishment before buckling. A bonus is the fact that chitin is easy to manufacture thanks to modern techniques and the A4 is only slightly more expensive to create.

**-April 16****th****-** A further development is the CIS 1-Undersuit. After further research, when chitin is heated at a specific temperature it's malleable enough to be weaved into fibres not unlike the carbon fibre used in the past. Like with the starship armour, it's weaker than the IBP mixture used for the power armours, so R&D decided to create an undersuit that infantry men and women can wear as a last line of defence under their armour and shields as its light enough that wearing it underneath everything doesn't make that large a difference in weight.

As of yet there is no further inquiries into hatching the egg.

**-September 5****th****-** HMI finally manages to access the insectoid consoles. The trouble was they were using AI's to try and access the systems, but the systems themselves don't interact like Human or even Covenant computers, this is because they are organic like the rest of the ship and function more like a brain than a computer. It's rather peculiar as the 'brain', rather than showing on a screen, inputs information directly to the brain through sound waves.

With this revelation they learn the race is called the Rachni and the war with these 'Citadel Races' they lost thousands of years ago. With access to the network, scientists believe they can have a feasible method of communicating with the Rachni within a year if they decided to hatch it. Still however no decision has been made.

There revelation of there being another alien government present in the galaxy is kept quiet for the time being, and HMI is told to keep their eyes and ears open for any whisper but to not go looking. They do not need a two front war.

**-December 14****th****-** Although Humanity seems content with the stalemate along the 'Stalingrad Line' the Covenant beg to differ. At 15:38 on the 24th of December 2557 AD the Covenant launched an offensive spanning the entire 17 world line, although reports vary, the total Covenant armada number nearly 6000 vessels.

**-December 17****rd****\- **As of 21:19 only 4 of the 17 planets still hold out and the 5 fortress worlds are under siege while Covenant raiding fleets pour into the Inner Colonies without restraint.

**-December 30****th****-** Despite reinforcements arriving, _New Rome_, _Eos_ and _Paris IV_ fall, with the Paris System falling in its entirety at 08:52. _Meridian_ and _Trappist Prime_ continue to hold out with more reinforcements arriving from both sides as conflict rages in system and terrestrial.

QRF's and Battlegroups race around the Inner Colonies attempting to stem the tide of seemingly never ending fleets of the Covenant, tying up anything from being to relieve the besieged fortress worlds in strength. So the UNSC has to endure sending ships and soldiers to the colonies to prevent an even bigger gap forming while they try to avert a total military collapse.

* * *

[Downfall?]

**2558 AD**

**-Present time-**

Current strength of Navy – 6300 Combat Vessels / 1200 are permanently stationed in the Haven Sector

Current casualties – 19,763,000,000

Arcturus Station – 79% Complete

Earth Daedalus– 8% Complete

Reach Daedalus– 7% Complete

Terra Nova Daedalus– 5% Complete

Current Leader – High Admiral Terrance Hood

Admiral of Admirals – Fleet Admiral Preston Cole

Director of HMI – Lt. Jack Harper

Head of R&D – Dr. Catherine Halsey

* * *

(End)

**I've always thought the fact that in 500 years our population is only 36 Billion was peculiar when in less than a century we've rises from 1 to nearly 8 Billion. And considering we're expecting to be at 10 Billion by around 2050, I expect by 2500 families would have 'got it on' more often due to the increase in space from the colonisation efforts and families to have around 3-5 kids on the norm. **

**Also I've set the Human life span to about 200 as 100 years ago we only lived to about 40. 500 years into the future I'm hoping it's a little longer when medical technology has advanced, so being 100 is technically 'middle aged'.**

In any case I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thought that it was an accurate divergence to cannon and if you have any suggestion by all means put them in a review or PM me.

-Red


	2. Parabellum

**For my American readers, the calendar layout is Day–Month–Year.**

* * *

/ New Alexandria – Reach – Epsilon Eridani \\\

/ 2-3-2558 - Military Calendar \\\

/ 11:56 am \\\

Rear Admiral Hannah Taylor walked into the briefing room at Alpha Base with confidence in her step; the room was large, about 25m in length and width and for good reason. The back wall of the room was packed with seats in rows going all the way to the ceiling, some of which were already filled, in the centre before the first row was a large holotable and she saw a larger screen above the door out the corner of her eye as she passed the door frame. The room was bland, grey walls surrounding grey floors, the only decorations of the room being three HDE flags, a white eagle grasping a globe on a grey field with a blue stripe from the top right to the bottom left, (The Bungie one, not 343) either side of the room.

Admirals, Vice Admirals, Rear Admirals, Generals, Colonels and more filled the room making it a bland mix of greys and blacks. Having been promoted to Rear Admiral Lower Class only months before the breach of the 'Stalingrad Line' she only knew the occupants as superiors rather than friends, so she simply chose the middle row and sat down in an empty seat, taking out a data pad stowed in her inner pocket to pass the time.

She was skimming the updates on her 52nd QRF, and the progress of the resupplying of her Epoch-Class Carrier _Einstein, _when a familiar voice barked next to her. "Commander Taylor, stand at attention when I'm addressing you!"

Hannah dropped her data pad and stood at attention on instinct and saluted the air. "Sorry Captain Hackett!" She yelled drawing eyes from some of the crowd. She blinked and realised two things. One, she wasn't a Commander anymore and two; Hackett was no longer her CO.

She looked to her side with a frown on her face. "That was a cruel trick Admiral." She was addressing a man that appeared to be in his forties but was in reality 67. Steven Hackett was a tall man with an average build; his grey officer's uniform was pressed and clean which only accentuated his stiff and broad posture. His hair was greying despite his youthful age which highlighted the grim look most UNSC personnel now unconsciously wore. One she feared she'd wear soon enough.

Finally the man smiled, pulling at a small scar over his lip, "Apologies Hannah, the opportunity was too good to waste."

Hearing her first name allowed Shepard to relax mentally and physically. "It's good to see you Steven. How's the wife?" She smiled and embraced the elder man.

Steven hugged back, "Still nonexistent." He laughed and pulled back. "How's William doing?"

Hannah smiled and picked up her dropped data pad, "William is as ever engrossed in his business, and he recently committed on a very important subject."

"Oho? Another project of his?" Hackett replied eagerly, the navy was always interested in SDS's 'projects' mainly because they made things explode.

Hannah laughed, and raised her hand, showing the glinting diamond engagement ring, "He _finally _proposed" Hannah grinned as a wide but gently smile spread across Hackett's face.

"Well it's about time too," He remarked hugged her again, tighter this time.

Hannah snorted, "That's what I said," She said with a small laugh.

"When's the wedding then?" Steven questioned as he backed off once more.

"Haven't gotten that far yet, but I was wondering something."

Steven cocked an eyebrow, "Yes?"

Hannah mumbled something and looked away.

"Hannah," He said a bit more sternly.

"Well I was wondering if you'd walk me down the aisle." She mumbled, louder this time.

"What?" He chocked out,

"I just thought that since both mine and William's parents are dead, and you're the closest thing I've had to a father since then." A few tears had gathered in her eyes at this point.

"Hannah," Steven said softly, "I'd be honoured too," He said putting a hand on her shoulder.

The lady in question smiled brightly, "Thank you." He whispered embracing the man again.

"Now enough of the wishy washy stuff, congratulations of your promotion." Hackett clapped Hannah on the shoulder, tapping the shoulder pauldron which displayed a singular silver star.

"Me? What about you? _Vice_ Admiral." She teased. "You didn't go and steal another star did you?"

Hackett barked a laugh, "You wish. I was promoted shortly after the 'line' collapsed; apparently they needed officers enough I was one of the few promoted." He explained.

Hannah nodded, "What fleet did you get?"

"11th Heavy, going to be right in the thick of it."

"11th? I thought only a few ships survived the engagement over _New Rome_?"

"They did. A handful of frigates and a single destroyer, practically bleeding debris and atmosphere. Thankfully, a new cycle had just finished in the ships yards, ships that were meant for creating new fleets are reinforcing those on the front, or will be concerning the 11th." Hackett said grimly, and Shepard matched his tone.

"ATTENTION!" One of the marines guarding the door yelled and all those present stood stiff and saluted as High Admiral Hood and Fleet Admiral Cole entered the room, the High Admiral standing out like a beacon in his bleach white dress uniform. Director Harper and Dr. Halsey following dutifully behind, talking between each other.

Both Cole and Hood saluted back and the room stood at ease. The two shared a few words and Cole proceeded to sit in the front row with Harper and Halsey while Hood proceeded to the holotable. "Thank you for waiting; be seated." He spoke and the room obeyed. He activated the holotable, and turned on the screen behind him. "Lights." He called out and they dimmed in accordance with his words. The screen behind him switched to a view of the current layout of Human space in the Orion Arm facing what they predicted Covenant space to be. It was currently 3 times the size of the Human Inner Colonies and the Haven Sector combined. It would have doubled if the Humans still retained the Outer Colonies.

"Almost 3 years ago, Director Harper sent nearly 100 prowlers into Covenant controlled territory for the purpose of gaining intelligence on the size of Covenant space, number of colonies, important planets and stations. Combined with the data recovered from 'Sleight of Hand', this is the result." Hood pressed a button and the Covenant controlled swelled to encompass over 2 thirds of the Orion Arm, Human space only consisted of half what was left. It was only through sheer discipline that the room remained quiet.

"That's not all." He continued; the screen switched to what appeared to be Covenant ship yards with only a few vessel hulls in construction. "Shots of major ship yards were also taken on the way in. These were taken on the way out." The images changed to ships yards full of keels, large and small. One even appeared to be building massive 28Km hull sections of the feared CSO-Supercarrier. There were many in production. "These images were taken months ago. As shown by the breach of the 'Stalingrad Line', we can no longer sit in idleness and wait out the Covenant as they smash against our defences. This is a war we cannot win through attrition alone, the goliath is waking up." Hood explained grimly, the images kept cycling through images of ships being built and fleets large armadas being formed.

"So? What do we do?" Someone in the audience asked.

"We become David." Cole said, walking up to the table and activating a close up view of the current situation in Human space. The space currently in Human possession was coloured blue and the area the Covenant had breached was shaded with purple. "The first stage is to cut off the Covenant reinforcements by reclaiming the 'Stalingrad Line'." The blue area surrounding the breach, pincered and closed off the gap leaving an area of purple in a sea of blue. "Not only will we regain our fortress worlds, but we'll cut off Covenant raiding flotillas and fleets off from supplies. Considering their tactic of glassing any planet they conquer, they'll have nothing to supply them in the long run allowing us to simply sweep them aside." Cole explained as the purple blob slowly shrunk before disappearing entirely.

"Of course, simply doing this won't win the war. While it might put a dent in their efforts, it will only be a short amount of time before their losses are replaced and they come at us again." Director Harper spoke this time, stepping up to the table. "One of the reasons why we've lasted this long against the Covenant, an empire that has existed for four times longer than we've been space faring, is through our ingenuity. Our ability to adapt to any situation, something the Covenant has been unable to conform too because they've witnessed millennia of the status quo, one that we've upset."

"As we've seen time and time again, in pitch battles against the Covenant Navy, we are outmatched unless we have the numbers on our side. Very soon that advantage will be taken away through the sheer number of ships the Covenant can field." Hood said.

"Thanks to Director Harper's prowlers, we now have the locations of multiple key targets in Covenant space. Ship yards, commerce hubs, large population centres. Everything that makes the Covenant tick." Cole continued.

"Do not wage war to destroy the enemy; destroy the enemy's ability to wage war." Harper quoted

"Defeat in detail." Cole said as well

"We cannot win in a straight fight that much is evident. So we must fight in a way that they cannot fight back." Hood concluded.

"Hit and run tactics are the name of the game people. Guerilla warfare at its finest, or worse depending your view." Cole began again.

"Of course we can't do this without a Navy, guerilla warfare this may be, but we can't do this without ships. Especially since the Covenant are ramping up production of their own vessels, so should we." Hood gestured to Dr. Halsey who joined them at the table.

"With the completion of phoenix, we turned to creating larger ships to contend with Covenant capitals on a regular basis, ships that without a doubt could be called 'Dreadnaughts'. This is Project: UNASSAILABLE. " The doctor, started. She pressed a few times on her data pad, and a 3D model of a ship outline appeared on the holotable. "The first of many is the Vindication-Class Dreadnaught. 8.3Km long, and 1.5Km at its widest point. Its main armament is 4 MAC cannons mounted at the prow, and another mounted on the stern in the event it is flanked. Its secondary consists of 30 Onagers, 575 H-PNC's, 350 L-PNC's, 150 Pulse Laser Batteries and 10 Plasma Lances. Its missile capabilities are smaller considering its size but still substantial, 18 Plasma torpedoes, 290 Archer II, 100 Howlers." Halsey listed off. Points lighting up on the ship outline when they were announced. "Its fighter and marine complement are small for a reason, both roles being shifted to carriers. Make no mistake this is a ship built to wrestle control of space. Nothing more nothing less." There were many appreciative whistles in the audience.

*It was similar to the Phoenix refits that served in the Navy at the start and had been relegated to pure troop transports, it had a long flat hull sections at were wide at the front and covered the entire side rather than just half like on the Phoenix. The first section was 4Km long and 1Km wide and transitioned into a 'neck' that travelled back for a further 3Km, and was only half a Km wide. The final section contained the engines that protruded off in a fashion that made it look like overlapping layers.

"The next is, shall we say and upgrade for a class already in existence. The Olympus Mons-Class Supercarrier is meant to define a class that already exists. _12Km_ long and 3Km wide and 8Km tall, this ship is a capital dedicated to battlefield support, not control. With a single SMAC at its prow, 15 Onagers, 350 H-PNC's, 170 L-PNC's and 150 Laser Pulse Batteries, 10 Plasma torpedoes, 150 Archer II's, and 25 Howlers it is woefully under armed for its size." The Doctor 'helpfully' pointed to the various mutterings of agreement to the audience. "However this is a carrier we're looking at. Thanks to new methods of storing and launching our fighters, the Olympus Mons-Class can carry 150 Broadsword Squadrons, 200 Katana Interceptor Squadrons and 300 Pelicans." She recited further. "On top of that, due to its size we decided on two type of Olympus Mons, one that carries fighters. And one that carries ships." Halsey couldn't help but smirk at the surprised looks, it was her idea after all. "In special bays it can carry 10 Illustrious-Class frigates, 7 Lancer-Class Destroyers, 3 Aegis-Class Destroyers and 2 Gladiator-Class Battlecruisers. It had a smaller fighter contingent due to this but that's not really an issue." Halsey listed off to the gobsmacked audience. "The Olympus Mons F-Class is orientated for fleet support, while the Olympus Mons S-Class is made with long range scouting missions into enemy space, or a mobile hit and run force."

The ship(s) looked like a long hexagon it and elongated bottom, circular tubes run across it's surface, presumably were the fighters were launched, and a larger underside where more hangers were present.

"And last but most certainly not least, there is this." The image of the Olympus Mons-Class stayed present on the holo, but shrunk allowing a much larger ship to take centre stage. It was over double the size of the carrier. "25.6Km long. 9.1Km at its widest point. This is the largest ship ever to be built by Human hands. The Prometheus-Class Super-dreadnaught _Light of Sol_." Now nothing stopped the awed mutterings from the crowd as they gazed in wonder at the beast of the ship. "Her main gun is currently classified however her secondary's make up a fleet on their own. 30 Plasma Lances, 30 Plasma Torpedo banks, 100 Onagers, 860 H-PNC's, 530 L-PNC's, 200 Pulse Laser Batteries, 450 Archer II's, 200 Howler's, and a large stockpile of various nuclear ordinance. It fighters include: 450 Broadswords Squadrons, 550 Katana Squadrons, and enough personnel and equipment to single handily take a planet." Halsey presented to the thoroughly stunned audience.

The ship was truly gargantuan, shaped like a narrow chevron, even the smallest part at the nose was 3.5km wide. The two sides were separated by a narrow gap where the barrel of a weapon of some sort was peeking out from underneath an overhang. Further back, the ship gradually widened out and the back half of the ship split and hung down at a slight angle. Weapon emplacements were clearly defined on the hull of the ship and hangers ran the length of it.*

A hand nervously rose from the audience, "How exactly are we planning to build these ships? They seem larger than our current shipyards."

"These designs have been in the works since the starting stages of Operation: CASTRUM, we've been building shipyards in the Oort Cloud to accommodate these larger ships. In addition to that, the Daedalus yards are being constructed in a fashion that even though the rest of the ring is yet to be complete, the section completed will be fully operable when it's done. This allows us to push out even more ships to the front." Lord Hood explained.

"You say these designs have been made for these vessels for close to 15 years now, are any in production and how soon can we reliably have them in the fight?" another Admiral asked.

Admiral Cole let a small smirk grace his lips. "The first vessels, 7 Vindications and 4 Olympus Mons will be available in 7 months and 13 months respectively. The _Light of Sol_ unfortunately is scheduled to finish in 3 years time due to the sheer size we have to compensate for. Although only one Prometheus-Class is planned for now, the Vindicators and Olympus Mons' are on a continuous cycle just as any other class of ship."

"Any other questions?" Hood offered to the room, when there were none he spoke again. "Very well, you have seen the overall plan and will receive your personal assignments by the end of the day. To your duties." He nodded and turned to stride out the room, the rest of his staff following behind.

Hannah turned to her mentor with a grin on her face, "Well, it looks like we're about to get some upgrades."

Hackett smiled as well, "So it seems."

Hannah's datapad bleeped, after taking a look it was a notification telling her that the resupplying was finished and that she had already received her orders. "Well, it looks like duty calls."

Hackett nodded and stood with her, "As it always does."

Hannah nodded again and tucked a red lock behind her ear that had fallen out of her bun, "Take care Vice Admiral." She said stepping forward to enclose the older man in a hug.

Steven hugged her back, "You too Rear Admiral." With their pieces said the two separated and left the room, back to war.

* * *

"What's the situation today Preston?" Hood asked the Admiral when they had returned to his penthouse office in the centre of New Alexandria, the glass windows overlooking the tall cityscape of Reach's capital.

"We've taken heavy casualties doing so but the situations stabilised. We've lost 8 colonies not including those on the former 'Stalingrad Line', and a further 3 are under siege. Again not including those on the line." He reported, "I would be hesitant on saying we can retake said colonies soon due to the sheer number of fleets the Covenant are fielding however."

Lord Hood hummed in thought. "What's the state of _Trappist Prime _and _Meridian_?"

"Not good, most of the Trappist system has fallen and their beginning to focus their attention on the central colony, naval and ground forces have resorted to hit and run tactics to delay their advance as much as possible. On _Meridian_ they've take roughly 70% of the colony and have reached the outskirts of the capital, the army are holding the line for now with a new batch of reinforcement having just arrived, while the marines left and the colonial militia make runs at their supply lines and flanks. The situation in space isn't much better, the remains of the fleet has so far been able to keep the Covenant from gaining complete orbital however they are unsure how long they can keep the Covenant wary of their last ODP's."

"How long do both realistically have?" Hood directed the question at a newly arrived General Nelson Halliday. He was a large man with shortly cropped black hair, muscles clearly formed through his black army dress uniform.

"5 months, give or take a few weeks. We simply can't keep up with the reinforcement rate that the Covenant is putting out." Halliday's voice was deep and stoic yet clear and concise.

Hood frowned and rubbed a hand across his bald head as he sat heavily on the natural leather chair behind his desk. The trouble was that while those two worlds stood, it prevented a total collapse of the line and stopped Covenant fleets advancing further beyond them, the colonies preventing the fleets from having a solid supply line. As long as _Trappist Prime _and_ Meridian_ stood then the situation was salvageable.

"How goes our special project?" Jack Harper asked as the silence began to stretch on.

"_Light of Sol's_ main gun will be ready before the ship has finished production allowing us to further adjust it." Halsey reported without looking up from her datapad.

Hood nodded, "Good, how about the research into biotics?"

"We're experimenting with a L2 implant that while is miles better than the L1, still falls slightly short of expected results. In a few weeks we hope to have a working prototype to determine the exact issue and from there we can work on a L3." Jack replied, Hood nodded again at that and turned finally to Halliday.

"The 'Hannibal' turret is in the final stages of testing and we've already begun mounting them on our Panthers to test how the tank deals with both the increase in weight and power consumption." He said clear pride showing in his eyes, despite the stoicism of his voice. "The new vehicles are proving their worth in battle, the Hawks easily take control of the skies and the last Hornets have been retired. The marines in particular like the Coyote IFV which exceeds expectations, the new Stalker-Class antitank droid seem to work best in groups and are great at ambushes and the Mantis' have integrated well."

The Panther was the Scorpion tank's successor, about double the size of the current tank it was heavier but with a more powerful engine with a top speed of 54 mph (86 kph). The armour was stronger and more heat resistant, and the cannon was centralised rather than sitting at the back like on the scorpion. A down side was that due to its larger size, a larger crew of 3 was needed to operate rather than the singular one. An added bonus to the extra bulk of the tank was that a large shield generator was able to be mounted onto the chassis.

The Coyote IFV was created to be the middle ground between the Warthogs and the Panthers, the marines in particular needed a vehicle that was more armoured and powerful than the Warthogs which were first and foremost a scout car, and the Scorpion/Panther MBT's which were too heavy to be deployed rapidly. (Basically the Mako)

The conversation in the room lulled into silence for a few moments as each occupant sorted through their own thoughts. However a short duration later a chime echoed through the office, a corner of Lord Hood's desk lit up projecting his personal AI, Constance.

The AI was feminine and wore a plain suit jacket, white shirt and trousers, all tinted blue due to her pigment. "Apologies for interrupting sir, but the Lead Scientist of 'Black Matter Incorporated' is asking to meet you. He says they've made a breakthrough."

Lord Hood's eyebrows rose as did the others in the room. It wasn't a secret what 'BMI' was working on. "Send him up."

The AI nodded and disappeared. A few minutes later, and hole in the floor lit up and opened revealing an elevator which carried a lanky man with large round glasses, brown hair and the standard R&D blue and white lab coat. He was furiously tapping on his datapad even as he rose, stepping off before the elevator had stopped.

He walked up to Lord Hood's desk and gave a messy salute which was clear to even a blind man that he either was in a hurry or never served in the military. In this case it was both. "I'm sorry to interrupt like this Lord Hood, but we've made a discovery which might help with our travel troubles." He spoke quickly and to the point.

Hood nodded his consent, "Go ahead Dr. Clarence."

The scientist nodded again and tapped a few more times on his pad before swiping up. Hood's desk once again lit up and the schematics for a slipspace engine filled the space above the table. "We've been testing methods on how to reduce the heat output of our ESD's without the use of heat-sinks. And we found it." He reported gleefully.

"How?" Halsey asked curiously.

"With this." A section of the new ESD became highlighted showing a large box which then led on to piping which surrounding the drive and then fed directly into it. "A laser-induced optical slurry of ions chilled to near-absolute zero that will remove the reliance on expendable chemical coolant agents. In essence, the new system can provide increased waste heat removal as power output increased. The more power the slipspace engine uses, the more it is cooled down. And the best part is; we can also apply this method to our reactors. We might never need to worry about overheating again!"

Halsey actually gaped at the image; it was brilliant yet so simple. After realising everyone but the new arrival was looking at her, she coughed into her hand and composed herself. "It will work. While alone it's nothing, outfitting our entire navy, military and logistical alike it will be expensive. Like most things these days, but it is doable but will take time. How soon can you have a prototype?"

"We already have one, a few more weeks to work out the kinks and it will be ready to put into service." Clarence grinned enthusiastically.

Hood looked at him sternly, "Can you get it down to one?" He 'asked'.

The scientist scratched the back of his head, enthusiasm gone, "Sure, if we put in the overtime."

Hood nodded, "Then see too it. Catherine, go have a personal look and see if you can have a hand in it yourself, Dr. Clarence you shall aid her in any manner she needs." He ordered, and although he looked rather miffed at having to entertain the Head of R&D he didn't really have a choice in the matter. "Good, then both of you get to it. This could be a large strategic advantage."

And it was, due to the fact that Human ships needed to vent heat every 7 days, it meant crucial fleets couldn't retreat far behind friendly forces, putting them at risk of raiding attacks. Not to mention it limited the distance they could foray into Covenant controlled territory. Of course Prowlers being the exception to that rule.

"Halliday, see if you can free up some troops in the Haven sector to send to _Meridian _and _Trappist Prime_. Those worlds need to hold above all else." Hood ordered the General, who nodded and gave a crisp salute. "Harper, we need new SPARTANs. The III's and even the II's are beginning to strain under the weight as you no doubt know. We need numbers, but we need the biotics to be ready to give them a fighting chance. I want a working implant in a fortnight." Harper nodded with a grim look, he disliked his work being rushed but as Hood said. They needed SPARTANs. The head of Humanities survival looked each person in the eye. "You have your orders." He dismissed, each giving the man a salute before heading to the elevator and leaving.

"So...what would you have me do?" Preston asked after a period of quiet.

"You'll be tip of the spear for the counter attack, you'll sweep from galactic east while Admiral Drescher sweeps from the west. The end goal is you'll meet in the middle at _Eos_ and complete the full envelopment of Covenant fleets in the Inner Colonies, I'll leave fleet compositions between you two but I need you ready in a week." Hood explained making Cole nod.

The room beeped again and Constance popped up on the corner. "Casualty reports Fleet Admiral." She informed simply before disappearing.

Terrance leaned forward and pulled a datapad from a compartment underneath his desk and turned it on. A frown immediately made itself know across his aged face. "Langley is dead." He told Cole.

"Shit." The other Admiral cursed. "We're losing more officers than we can replace that this rate." He muttered.

"Any thoughts on who to replace him with?"

Preston scratched his chin in thought, "What about Clayton?"

"Perhaps, he's certainly proven himself as an intelligent and intuitive Captain. He's taken care of his ship and crew but can he lead a fleet? Not to mention there's been a few times where he's been flagged when concerning his...allegiances." Hood mentioned

"The Insurrection still that much trouble, I'll admit I've been a bit busy to worry about them recently."

"As have we all. They've been quiet for the most part, ONI and now HMI created a task force with the intention of running interference against them and so far it's proven successful." Hood informed.

"Pernell?"

"Again a good Captain, but does that make him a good Admiral? He hasn't seen much combat since he's been tied to the Inner Colonies for most of the war." Hood once again shot down.

"What of Niko?" The lower Admiral put forward.

"Howard Niko? He commands a Prowler, the _Sargasso_. The only time he's seen combat was at the beginning of his career."

Cole hummed in thought, "Lasky." He said at last.

"A possibility, but perhaps a bit inexperienced. He only made Captain just over a year ago after all."

"His test scores at the Corbulo were impressive when he applied himself, presides we don't have to assign him a sector fleet, just a QRF to start." Cole pointed out.

"Which is true, he's certainly got the talent for it many have compared him to your early days." Hood muttered.

"Is that right?" Admiral Cole answered surprised.

Lord Hood nodded. "You haven't heard? I can see where they get it from."

"So Laskey for Admiral then?" Cole finished.

"It seems so, Constance make an appointment please."

"Done Admiral, and may I remind you your 1:30 is here." Constance appeared on the desk. "Shall I send him up?"

Admiral Hood sighed and stood up causing the other Admiral to do so as well, "You may. Admiral it's been a pleasure as always." Terrance said as he held out his hand to shake.

Preston took it firmly. "I best get to work then." He said grimly.

The older man nodded, "Be careful old friend, I don't know what the HDE will do without you."

Preston nodded back and simply saluted.

* * *

Howard Niko tapped a pattern on his arm rest as he sat in the CIC of his Prowler the _Sargasso_. "Status?" He questioned.

"Still sitting there Captain, I have detected no change since they've stopped firing at the relay." Ensign Waters replied from his position at sensors.

Niko hummed, for the past few days they'd been tailing a curiously acting Covenant raiding fleet around the Orion arm wondering what they were looking for, a few hours ago they exited slipspace in the system to find said fleet firing uselessly at a mass relay.

They stopped firing 10 minutes ago and now they were just sitting in space. "Any other signals being sent?"

"Negative sir, not since the first time." Waters replied again.

"What about us?" Niko turned to another corner of the CIC

"Still isolated Captain, I'm trying my best but with how jumpy the Covenant seem I don't want to risk sending our own signal out on the basis they may discover our location." Comms Specialist Adams reported from his own terminal.

"Very well keep trying." Niko looked to his XO, Bailey Smith. "Thoughts Commander?"

Smith grimaced. "I don't like this, if they've discovered the Mass Relays then the potential for us being taken in the rear through the Haven Sector just got a lot more probable." He answered wringing his hands.

While Niko would usually frown on such blatant showcasing of nerves he knew he was right. Most of his crew were either survivors or had family that were from _Sargasso_. Those that survived had been moved to the Haven Sector, the rest were out for blood to avenge their lost loved ones.

The CIC returned to the terse quiet that filled it before, only the humming of the reactor behind them and the occasional beep breaking it.

"Slipspace ruptures! 14 signatures slipping in, 389km off our portside." Waters yelled suddenly.

Niko was up and out of his chair in moments looking out the view screen in the front of the CIC. "Classes?" He snapped.

"1 ORS-Class Heavy Cruiser, 3 CCS-Class Battlecruisers, 2 CPV-Class Destroyers, 3 CRS-Class Light Cruisers, and 5 SDV-Class Heavy Corvettes." He rattled off. "They're moving to link up with the other fleet, ETA approx 5 hours."

"That's 23 ships. The numbers are higher and the tonnage is leagues above a normal raiding fleet." Smith murmured beside him.

Niko hummed in agreement. "This isn't a normal raiding fleet. Hell I doubt it's even for raiding."

"Micro-ruptures detected, fleets have linked up. They must have come far if they were letting their drives recharge." Waters reported.

"I'm picking up lots of chatter between the fleet captain, whatever they're doing with the relay it's made them excited." Adams said.

"Lenard, have you accessed their systems?" Niko asked.

A black coloured AI popped up in the shape of a diamond, "Affirmative Captain, however I cannot ascertain the reason for their presence here. It seems as though they stumbled across the Relay entirely by luck."

Niko hummed again as the bridge returned to the quiet it was before. 10 minutes passed before something else happened, and it wasn't good news. "Sir, I don't know how but they just activated the relay! They're going through!"

Niko cursed silently, "Launch a probe, track them! We need to know where they exit!" The crew hurries to obey and with almost silent _thwump_, a probe is ejected and sent towards the waiting Covenant Fleet.

"Probe attached! Signal is strong!" Waters reported just as the fleet entered the mass relays range.

"Send a message back to HIGHCOM detailing everything, inform them we're perusing and will send more reports as soon as we are able." Niko ordered. "As soon as it's away, jump, let's see if they found anything."

* * *

Senior Captain Tiberpius Molacus grunted as he waved off another aide with a report that was likely a repeat of the last 5 years, as the Senior Officer of the _Macedyn_ defense fleet, there wasn't must to do. _Macedyn_ was a small Turian colony world on the outskirts of Hierarchy Space. Normally this would mean a small defense fleet of say a few frigates, corvettes and a single cruiser, however the presence of a dormant Relay in the system meant that it was suitably beefed up. 4 Cruisers, 14 Frigates and 21 Corvettes, the fleet was grossly overweight for the colony it protected.

Leading such a fleet, as quiet as it was, would set up himself and his family nicely with a sizable pension and appropriately important job in the civic sector once he retired. He may even rise a few citizenship tiers he mused.

An incessant beeping pulled him out of his musings and he turned a lazyish eye to the sensors operator from which the beeping appeared to be originating from. "Sir, energy spike detected. The Relay, it's activating!" The Turian operating sensors yelled, tapping furiously on his console.

Tiberpius sat up straight in his chair, fully alert. "Red-Alert across the fleet, defence formation 3 in-between the colony and the Relay. Alert the colony defence forces, tell them to prepare for potential hostile contact." He ordered as he stared through the viewscreen, this would be the defining moment in his career. If he succeeded he might even be promoted!

"19 contacts coming through! Spirits..." Sensors trailed off in a clear tone of horror.

"Status!" He snapped. Even ignoring the break in discipline from the Turian, no one was getting in the way of his glory.

The Turian coughed and spoke nervously, "19 Contacts, and 11 of them are bigger than Dreadnaughts!"

The world around Tiberpius bled out as the ice cold feeling of fear grip his very soul. "Spirits preserve us." He muttered, decorum long forgotten.

* * *

(End)

*If I didn't adequately describe the ship look the the Farragut Battle Cruiser from Elite Dangerous.

Anyhow I was rather pleasantly surprised at the response from people, I didn't think that this story would gain a lot of attention. In answer to some questions:

PKD: They didn't, they are a secondary back-up defense for the Plasma Shileding that was reverse engineered off the Covenant. When it was first discovered, even the Barriers helped somewhat in space but not on ground as I described.

Hamilton406: In answer to the first part of your question, I can't reveal anything because that might spoil the story, however as Xenophobic as the Humans currently are you have nothing to fear. As for the tech, I/they already established the limitations of Eezo when compared to their own and the Covenants and have instead used it as a stepping stone to build their own.

tacoman12: I do have plans for Onyx yes.

-Red


	3. Ad Bellum

/ New Alexandria - Reach - Epsilon Eridani \\\

/ 4-4-2558 - Military Calendar \\\

/ 2:47 am - Local Time \\\

Director Jack Harper was a meticulous man both by nature and by trade. Information tended to be a fickle thing and the need to be well informed while still remaining accurate was a difficult line to walk, it was a trait that he had even in his younger years while his brother went off gallivanting in the Navy, it had paid off of course him being an Admiral now. Before ONI and now HMI, he'd been successful in doing just that, working under the former Admiral Osman in gathering intel on the insurrection before the war and during. Of course it was purely coincidental that the leak that brought down ONI had been linked to him had coincidently elevated him to the director of its replacement. The office of Human Military Intelligence had been able to walk a fine line with a respectful degree of success since its inception in **2553 AD**, there had of course been a few failures but those mistakes had either been swept under the rug or fixed before they became a significant problem. This had typically led to many sleepless nights, leading and firmly establishing the race's Intelligence network took a lot of work, which was why at nearly 3 in the morning he wasn't either bothered in the slightest or tired as he rode the elevator up to High Admiral Hood's office with a datapad in hand, the glass roof opened above him and the elevator stopped level with the floor and he stepped off not a moment later.

Evidently it had been a late night for the Admiral as well, the desk which had been clear in the meeting a couple days ago was now covered in stacks of both datapads and outdated sheets paper. The man himself was standing at the window overlooking the New Alexandria skyline, a small glass of brown liquid in his hand that he took intermediate sips from. "How bad is it?"

Jack kept his face blank as he folded his arms behind his back, "Depends on your outlook, but it's rough." He answered simply, looking at the glass with a slight degree of curiosity. Know every superior's habits; he knew it was rare to see the Admiral drinking.

Hood snorted and turned around to face the man as he returned to his desk, putting his own glass down he walked up to a flat wall which retracted a small compartment filled with different liquors. He grabbed a glass and placed a single cub of ice inside before filling it with the same brown liquid that filled his own and placed it on the table in front of Harper. "Fill me in." He commanded.

"As you know yesterday the Prowler '_Solace In Silence'_ captained by Howard Niko, tailed a Covenant fleet comprised of 23 vessels to a system containing a mass relay. After continued monitoring, the fleet somehow activated the mass relay and passed through it. We currently are unsure how."

Hood nodded along.

"A few hours ago we received another communiqué, apparently the Covenant found another space faring race behind the relay."

Hood's face went blank, "I see. Analysis?"

Harpers pressed his lips into a thin line, "Yes well, the new race had a fleet numbering 29 vessels guarding a small colony and were rather swiftly engaged by the Covenant. They were for a lack of a better word slaughtered, only managing to destroy 4 of the smaller Covenant vessels and disabling a fifth larger one."

"So little?" Hood questioned with confusion, even before the archives were found, Human ships were able to score more kills then that in similar engagements.

"Their largest ship was just over 500m." Harper stated blankly.

"Why, are they a new to space-faring?"

"From from what the _'Solace In Silence'_ was able to scan, the ships were comprised entirely of eezo. This race relies entirely on Mass Effect. Or rather _races_."

"Plural?" Hood questioned, a frown now heavily present.

"Plural." He confirmed. "Before the fleet's and consequently the colony's destruction, the Prowlers AI managed to hack into their systems, apparently even the early AI generations could have easily managed."

"What did it find?"

"A codex we believe."

"Believe?"

"The amount of information stored in that packet was substantial, it couldn't really have been anything else. It's handy because everything seems to be in one place, tricky because there's so much information it's taking a long time to translate everything however there was this." He pressed a few buttons and a number of holograms appeared above the desk, each depicting an alien race. "Admiral Hood, say hello to the Citadel Races." Harper announced gesturing to the array of holograms.

"When you said plural I was expecting 3 maybe 4 new races. Harper, that's 11." Hood calmly said, looking critically at the different aliens.

"Believe me, we weren't expecting it either but here's the run down." The holograms shifted into a tiered pattern with three at the top, five in the middle and three at the bottom. The three at the top grew until what he assumed to be their real life size.

All three were bipedal with two arms and two eyes. The one on the far left was clearly over 6ft, probably 7ft, and had a boney, metallic sort of carapace that surrounded their body. They had long arms and legs, two talon like fingers on both hands with an opposable thumb each. The head was birdlike which ended in a fringe atop their head.

The middle was shorter about 5ft, but a long spindly body and head with two protruding horns and large eyes, and hands which had two fingers and a thumb much like the first race.

The final was eerily similar to Humans, 5-6ft, two legs and two arms with hands with 4 fingers and a thumb. Two eyes, nose and lips arranged in an almost identical fashion to themselves. The only difference being that instead of hair on top of their head it appeared to have tentacle like crests.

"These three make up the 'Council Races', the leading trio of the Citadel Council." Harper presented, "In order we have the Turians, the Salarians and the Asari. The Turians were the ones encountered by the Covenant and seem to be the military arm of the Council. The Salarians appear to have a short lifespan but are highly intelligent and are able to analyse data faster to an alarming degree. The Asari are in our opinion the most dangerous, monogendered and capable of procreating with any species, their entire race is biotically capable and they live centuries, apparently known to live over 1000 years." Harper spoke.

Hood simply stared.

The three holograms minimised to be replaced by the middle five, these ones were much more diverse. "These are the Associate races, races that have an embassy and are part of the alliance but have no real say in the going on's. In order we have the Elcor, Hanar, Batarians, Volus and the Drell." He explained, "Each has their own part to play, the Drell appear to be a sort of client race to the Hanar however." He continued before those images also shrunk down to be replaced by the final three.

The first was big and mean looking, like it was able to simply punch a brute into nothingness which wasn't reassuring in the slightest. The second was another humanoid looking with backward knees and appeared to be in some sort of suit. The final looked as though a monster from the 20th century came to life.

"The final three are the Krogan, the Quarians and the Vorcha. These three don't have Council Associate status and seem to be outcasts of some sort from what we can glean." Harper began for the final time. "The Krogan are few in number, apparently they tried to rebel at some point and were wining until the Turians came into the playing field. They used a Salarian created virus to slowly kill off Krogan by making them infertile."

"Like we did with the Grunts?"

"Eerily so yes."

"And the others?"

"The Quarians are now a nomadic race confined to ships after their AI rebelled and kicked them off their own planets. When they went to the Council for aid, their embassy was shut down and they were kicked off the Citadel."

"Their AI rebelled, why? And why did this Council not help." Hood questioned.

"To the former, we're not sure. Either it doesn't say in the codex or we haven't gotten that far yet. As for the latter, it seems that AI are outlawed in Council space." Harper informed.

Hood blinked and scratched his chin but made no comment. "The Vorcha."

"The Vorcha as far as we can tell are primitives to the lowest level, no central government to speak of or even higher intelligence. The only reason they are note-worthy in any fashion is that they're trained by Krogan mercenaries as expendable muscle." Harper finished and the three shrunk back down with the others. He reached for the glass before him to refresh his throat after all that talking. Swirling it around in the glass he took a small sniff, "Is this Harvest Brandy?" He questioned, surprised. Even more so after he took a sip, "I thought there were only a few hundred bottles left?"

Hood nodded and took a sip of his own drink, "There are." He admitted. "You kept mentioning a 'Citadel'."

Harper nodded and put his glass back down to press some buttons on his datapad. The holograms changed into a single space station, shaped as a ring with 5 arms. "The Citadel, 44km long, 12km wide. This is the seat of the Citadel Council, first discovered by the Asari while we were still fighting with sticks." He gestured.

Hood nodded again. "Co-ordinates?"

"Afraid not, best we've got is that it's somewhere in the Serpent Nebula. Apparently the only way to access it is through a Relay. We're also still trying to get concrete borders mapped out however. From what we can tell now we are worryingly close to both the Batarian and Turian controlled space." Harper said.

"Haven sector?" Hood guessed.

Harper nodded, "Haven Sector."

Hood sighed heavily and finished his drink. "If they attack through there we'll be finished, it's practically undefended. We've been pulling troops and ships from there for a while." He muttered and Harper nodded in agreement.

Harper finished his own drink, "Would you like my own opinion?"

Hood nodded.

"Adopt a wait and see approach, if this Citadel Council and the Covenant go to war it means a whole lot less guns aimed at us."

"And if they ally against us?"

"Then we arm every man, woman and child in Human space. It's already seen as an impossible mission to fight the Covenant single handily, it will spell doom if more join them. We already know the Covenant won't accept a surrender, so we'll have to make sure to take as many down with us as we can." Harper spoke grimly, finally breaking the mask of indifference he had held all meeting.

Silence reined in the office for a few minutes as both men digested what had been spoken. "How long will it take to get a full tactical portfolio to be distributed to all senior ranking officers?" Hood asked at last.

"A few more hours? We're using the algorithm we use to decode and translate the Covenant battle-net, however as I said there is simply too much information to go through in a short amount of time."

"I want a priority on high value targets like this Citadel, if we can pull the rug out from underneath the Council before they strike we might be able to dissuade them from joining the Covenant. Take out their leaders and they will have no one to lead them." Hood ordered and Harper nodded and made a note on his datapad.

"You'll be the first to receive it." Harper promised "I'll reassign some Prowlers too. We have the end location for the Relay at Shanxi, we'll take a look see what's on the other side." He added before turning to leave the office, leaving Hood alone after a few moments.

"Constance." The AI dutifully appeared. "Contact Admiral Cole and Drescher, tell them the situations changed, they have 25 standard hours to complete their fleets and begin the counter-attack."

The AI nodded, "Anything else sir?"

"Yes, tell Admiral Whitcomb to move up production on Project: UNASSALIABLE, he has my full authority to pull resources from other areas just not to overdo it." The AI nodded again and disappeared.

The Admiral looked quietly at his desk tapping his empty glass in deep thought before turning to refill his glass. If looked to be another sleepless night for him.

If it came to war he knew what had to be done, as did everyone in Human space. Aliens were out to get them, and the only people you could trust were you're only brothers and sisters in arms. If they attacked they would surely lose, but by the time the last Human world fell, and the last solider died screaming at his aggressors, their enemies would be an endangered species. Forever they would speak in hushed tones when someone spoke of the Human war machine, forever parents would tell children stories of the Humans to get them to behave. If need be their legacy would be blood, because that would be all the galaxy would know.

* * *

/ Cipritine - Palaven - Trebia \\\

/ 21-11-2156 - Galactic Standard \\\

/ 12:48 PM - Local Time \\\

The offices of the Turian Primarch are a middle ground between the other two Council Races. Spartan compared to the ornate and elaborate rooms from the Asari Republics, and more finely decorated compared to the actual Spartan rooms of the Salarian Union Daltrasses', who tended to only have a desk, chair and terminal in their office. The current Primach, Septer Rececius, wasn't bothered in the slightest. What he was bothered about was why one of their colonies went dark for no reason, for the near 50 Turian years he'd been in office something on this scale had never happened.

There were many hypothesis' as to why, Batarian slavers, just slavers in general, a rebellion in the colony. But those were ruled out due to the size of the fleet that _Macedyn_ held, it would be simply too improbable for those events to make the colony simply go quiet with no word getting out. So the most plausible cause running through the sensible minds of the Hierarchy was that something must have come through the relay. It wasn't a very pleasing image whatever outcome.

Currently the Turian Primarch was doing errant work while he not so patiently waited for the scout fleet to arrive and send back word. Even as he did so a much larger fleet was being gathered and receiving supplies in currently likely case that it was needed.

The Salarian STG probably already knew what had happened, they would probably tell the Salarian Councillor who'd then tell the Asari and the Turian Councillors and he'd then get an earful for not telling them soon. He'd then say it was a Turian problem, so Turians would fix it. Their Councillor would agree, the Salarians wouldn't and the Asari would try and mediate as they got in an argument. He was actually expecting their call any minute now while he waited for the scout's report to come in.

The doors to his office opened allowing a Turian in plain armour to entire where he saluted at the Primarch. "Primarch, the scouts reported it." He was young, probably in his first year or two of the military.

"And?" Reciucius' retort was short and to the point, no use wasting words.

Rather than replying, the young Turian held up his omni-tool and pressed a few buttons, a few moments later and an image was displayed above his arm. It showed a planetoid they could have once been a pale yellow desert world, but was now alight with flame. Large continents were alight, or in some cases entirely black, the small bodies of water were still in the process of boiling away. "Macedyn?" Reciucius asked, simply for confirmation.

"It's completely destroyed, and as far as we can tell there are zero survivors but they're still searching."

"Do we know what caused it?"

"Although we have no dedicated survey ship in the fleet. Preliminary scans however have determined that it's some sort of highly concentrated plasma. The same plasma seems to be what caused the destruction of the fleet, with some kind of energy weapon." The Turian rattled off.

"An energy weapon, plasma? Was there any type of Eezo detected."

"Other than that from ours, and the Macedyn fleet, nothing more than simply residue from the Relay."

"Was there any debris, bodies?"

"All debris in space has apparently been removed other than pieces that could be passed off as simple junk. As for bodies, we'll have to wait until they prepare an expedition groundside."

Reciucius, frowned and scratched his mandibles. "Thank you, that'll be all." He dismissed the Turian, who saluted and left. A moment later his terminal beeped as the information was uploaded.

He sat quietly reading through the detailed report when his terminal beeped again, this time signalling a call. He pressed a button and stood at his desk as the room dimmed and a hologram appeared about the surface. "Councillor Sparatus." He greeted the newly instated Turian Councillor.

"Primarch." Sparatus greeted in return.

"I must admit, I was expecting the full Council." Reciucius commented.

"Well they certainly wanted to get involved but I managed to convince them it a purely Turian matter until otherwise." Sparatus informed.

"Undoubtedly they will still poke around" He said.

"I'm expecting it but there is nothing I can do about it so early in my tenure." Sparatus admitted. "What's the situation, the STG gave a report but I don't trust Councillor Amori to withhold information."

Reciucius pressed a few buttons and sent the data pack to the Councillors personal terminal. "Yesterday an unknown fleet comprised of an unknown number of ships entered the Camtis System and engaged the colony of Macedyn and destroyed it before they could get a signal out." He began, "We sent a scout fleet to investigate when a Turian reported that he couldn't contact his family on the colony and it was revealed that no outbound signals had been detected for nearly six hours, they arrived just under an hour ago."

Sparatus frowned and nodded him to continue.

"What they found was simply destruction, with so far no survivors."

"Who did it?"

"Exactly who we don't know, but whoever attacked had either too little Eezo to accurately detect after time, or none at all."

"A race with no Eezo at all." Sparatus murmured. "And yet they used the Relay?"

"The inbound one, the outbound wasn't touched." Reciucius replied.

"A race independent of Mass Effect..." Sparatus theorized.

"Unfortunately that was my first thought as well. We have little to information though to be sure." Reciucius agreed.

Sparatus hummed, the flanging sound making it almost pleasant. "Science and survey ships?"

"Already inbound."

"Get them to scan for any anomalies, _anything_ might get us closer to finding out who did this." Sparatus ordered and Reciucius nodded.

"Anything else Councillor?" Recicuius inquired.

"No that's all for now, I however expect frequent updates from now on. I don't want to hear anything else from the STG unless I already know about it." Sparatus said and the Turian Primarch nodded in understanding. The hologram disappeared and light returned to the room.

Reciucius sat back down and tapped a talon on the desk before opening his terminal and getting to work.

The Turians had been the galaxies protectors for a thousand years, their military the envy of the Citadel. Whoever these mysterious invaders were, the Turian Hierarchy would show them the might of their legions. Even to their dying breath.

* * *

/ Oribt - New Rome - Stellar \\\

/ Cycle 147 - 9th Age of Reclamation \\\

/ Unit 14.6 - Covenant Battle Calendar \\\

Fleet Master Thel 'Vadamee considered himself to be a reasonable Sangheili, he followed the Covenant without hesitation and listened to any wisdom the Holy Hierarchs may pass on, they were of course the wisest and most devout of their Holy Covenant.

He had participated in and continued to fight in the Crusade against the Humans, their heretical filth is a blight against the galaxy and the Holy Forerunners. Yet he had begun to doubt the divine truths of the Prophets and begun to respect the Humans for more than they were before. Worthy opponents.

He had proudly led the Covenants warriors against the Humans, destroying their fleets and glassing their colonies with glee. At first it was a slaughter, fleets and colonies were simply swept aside, but then the Humans dug their heels in, adapted, began fighting dirty.

He had thankfully never experienced the Human's guerrilla tactics as they called it, but he had heard. The slaughter as hundreds of Human ships surrounded their fleets, scouts disappearing into asteroid belts and the whole field lighting up in a huge nuclear explosion. Planets emitting fake signals, entire parsecs of nuclear mines. Many Sangheili had died falling for these traps, and yet they could not hate them.

Of course they certainly angry, and many were openly detestable about it, which was understandable. Colonies were lost to these 'NOVA's, but it was nothing they hadn't done. As a species, the Sangheili were militaristic to the core. Millennia of being the staunch defenders of the faith held led to this, so they saw this from a warrior's perspective. This was war, and there was no honour in war. The Humans were using every trick to their advantage and it worked, the Covenant advance was delayed.

And then this...'Stalingrad' line was created. He personally didn't know what this 'Stalingrad' was, but rumour was it was a battle in ancient Human times. It must have been a truly ferocious battle to have a galactic line of fortified planets modelled and name after it.

Fleet after fleet smashed against it, holes were made but never for long. Until now that was. He himself had led an attack to pave the way for fleets to move deeper into Human space. Billions of Sangheili had died for this Covenant, and how did the Holy Prophets reward them? By giving more power to the Jiralhanae, the 'Brutes' as the Humans called them. It was an accurate nickname, they were Brutes. They were not the refined warriors of the Sangheili, they lacked respect and _honour_.

He growled, he _loathed_ them; they were a vile and beastly species with no place as high in the pecking order as they were. Even the neutered Unggoy were of more use than them, being the stocky labourers that they were.

His views weren't simply his own either. Many Sangheili shared his thoughts, from the lowest minor to the highest Fleet Master, but they kept quiet. Being as high up as he was, he knew the struggle. The war wasn't meant to continue on for this long, supply chains were stretched, fleets were few and soldiers were falling. Never before had a single race challenged the Covenant as the Humans did, not since the ancient war between his own species and the San'Shyuum, the war which created the Covenant itself.

And if the tales were true then the struggle was about to get harder, another space faring race had been discovered, and if the files stolen were correct there were many more to come. These Turians relied heavily on the Element Zero, the mysterious 'Mass Effect'. Few deposits were found in Covenant space, they had long since surpassed the need to use it. What little use it saw was for trinkets and toys for younglings.

Alone a war would be swift and decisive, what the Crusade against the Humans was meant to be. But if they were to join forces against the Covenant, then trouble could be on the horizon. And those damnable beasts had provoked them, slaughtered a Turian colony without being provoked themselves simply because they were _bored_. Sure they may sing tales of the Turians defiling Holy artefacts, after all that is what the construct must be to sustain such fire, it even responded to the Holy song. But the Sangheili weren't ignorant of their lies. They may have tricked the Prophets but the Sangheili won't be so easily deceived.

That was the resolve of the Sangheili, they were the guardians of the Covenant, they were the soldiers of the Holy Scriptures, not the _Brutes_. The Covenant will survive, even if they have to carry it to greatness alone.

* * *

/ Drem - Meridian - Azuro \\\

/ 4-4-2558 - Military Calendar \\\

/ 6:21 pm - Local Time \\\

Zaheed Massani was a rather vulgar person even in his youth, growing up in one of the more lawless parts to the outer colonies, assured that when you always needed a weapon on hand, even if it was just your mouth. The Covenant didn't help matters either, taking his parents at Harvest, one in the army and one in the Navy, it was practically a guaranteed death so early. The moment he could, he joined the fight, became a marine and starting kicking alien ass. His superiors even admitted that the ODST were becoming interested in him.

He cursed as an assortment of plasma slashed against his cover, but he was calm and composed. When the firing stopped he shifted slightly and leant out his cover to fire his own rounds, his trusty MA6 Assault Rifle Jessie spitting magnetically accelerated rounds down the avenue towards the advancing Covenant forces, he smirked slightly as the thunder from other weapons joined him and at least a couple dozen aliens were cut down. While the big guns in orbit got access to new plasma weaponry, it was still too advanced to use on a small arms scale, Mass Effect weaponry didn't possess the stopping to pierce through shields, so they compromised. MAC on a small arms scale was terrifying, metal slugs capable of ripping a brute in half were no joke.

He cursed as the plasma returned and the light blue of his shield lit up as it blocked shots aimed at him, and he wasted no time in returning to cover. A glance at his HUD showed he was almost out of ammo, so with a series of blinks his mag slid out and he smoothly slapped another in. Making sure the connection between his suit and the MA6 was still clear so it didn't run out of power mid fight. That would be bad.

He cursed again as the army soldier next to him received a beam through his skull, hitting the floor with a wet spalt, his shields and armour doing nothing to keep the concentrated energy out. Jackal snipers had infested the high arcologies for days now. Their burnt out ruins providing excellent view onto the fortified avenues where most of the fighting was done.

The movement of rubble to his left alerted him but a glance at his tracker showed a friendly IFF approaching. A few moments later, another Marine clutching an M405 DMR instead entered the building staying low and close to the walls until he reached the low wall Zaheed took cover behind, not even glancing at the dead body at his feet. Not many did now days. "Gunnery Sergeant." He greeted with a tired nod, his ICS covered in a mix of dust, mud and blood that almost completely hid the green tint underneath. He suspected his didn't look much different.

"Sergeant Major." He returned with his own nod, salutes were for ceremonies. "What's the word from up top?" He questioned, shifting once more to lay down fire as the Covenant's plasma weapons cycled to let off heat. This time joined by his associate, both returning in time as the fire got too hot, both literally and metaphorically.

"Shit's going down Massani." He began, "We just lost 3 arcologies on the west side and Covenant forces and pushing straight down the middle. It's only down to the recent reinforcements their holding at all." He spoke.

Zaheed rose an eyebrow underneath his helmet, "That bad Allman?" He questioned grimly.

"Worse." Allman replied, similarly grim. "Their throwing everything and the kitchen sink at them right now. Command expects them to start pushing this way soon."

"Shit" He cursed. "We got much to combat that?"

"We're being sent stuff to reinforce us but it might get here too late. Everyone is so low on rounds we've back to looting the dead. The Wolverines are low on batteries for their anti-air lasers, we've got little in the way of anti-tank never mind if they have shields or not we probably don't have enough to take out 2 groups of ghosts." He sighed and took off his helmet briefly to rub his eyes. He black cropped hair matted to his head and his green eyes red and tired. "The Panthers and the last Scorpions had to back further off up the avenue because the Hunters are getting bolder and the last Cobra we had entrenched just ran out of power cells."

"Shit." Zaheed cursed again.

"Shit doesn't even being to describe the situation kid." Allman muttered with a head shake. "Good news is that the word of God came through, the counter-attack will soon be in motion, we have to hold out 2 months give or take."

"What's the plan then?"

"Same as always, hold. We can't push, we have little room to manoeuvre and we're sure as hell not retreating." He spoke with a grin Massani could practically see underneath his helmet.

"Oorah!" Zaheed grunted with his own hidden grin. "Let's show these damn aliens what war is really like!" He yelled pouring down fire. His voice and actions followed by millions more.

Yes they will hold, and no alien race will ever tell them otherwise. Humans were the Apex predators in this galaxy, and it was time that the Covenant began learning that.

* * *

(End)

So here is the 2nd official chapter too my new story and I hoped you enjoyed the different perspectives, each will have their role to play, some perhaps more than others. Sorry for the long update though, nearly at the end of my exams now, but I'm also lazy so there that.

Anyway stay tuned for the next chapter.

-Red


	4. Ad Victoriam

/ Babd Catha Ice Shelf – Reach – Epsilon Eridani \\\

/ 4-4-2558 - Military Calendar \\\

/ 10:12 am - Local Time \\\

The lift down into Halsey's lab in the largest ice shelf on Reach was old and industrial, the metal was rusted and rickety and Lord Hood wondered if it wasn't for the fact it was used so often it would have fallen apart by now. It was ironic actually the simplicity of the lift compared to the technology contained in the underground cavern.

His two ODST guards looked in wonder at the ship frozen in the ice, hundreds of feet above them. Forerunners were a race they'd know about for decades now, however more pressing matters had forced their attention elsewhere, when it became known that it was the forerunners that the Covenant worshipped and had started their 'Holy' War over that attention came roaring back.

The ship was given the most scrutiny; the data banks at _Onyx_ were tightly locked behind firewalls centuries, possibly millennia, more advanced than theirs and little progress had been made. The ship was much the same however more inroads had been found and the matrix locking it was slowly being unravelled by Dr. Halsey. He was actually on the way down because she said she'd found something.

The elevator thankfully stopped then, and the door opening with a quiet squeal and Lord Hood stepped out onto the snowy ground, following the predetermined path to the lab. His dress coat did nothing for the cold but the thoughts swirling in his mind were enough to distract him for the minute journey to the heavy titanium doors.

Typing his personal override code into the control panel he wasn't surprised to see that it was declined, as per usual. However a few seconds later the doors pulled open and he stepped through, his guards knowing not to follow.

He walked for a few more minutes, the darkened hallways were only filled with little light and the clanking of his shoes on the steel grating on the floor. But he eventually reached another door which this time opened automatically into a large open room, the only man made structure being a platform extending a few dozen feet into the void, set before a large floating orb that looked like a globe. And at the end of that platform stood Halsey, hunched over a console.

"Data, pure unrefined data, and what secrets it could hold." Hood remarked stepping forward.

"Secrets we are much closer to discovering." Halsey replied not looking up, "After all this is why you are here?"

Hood snorted as he arrived next to her, "You asked me to come Catherine."

"You came because I said I may have discovered something, not because I asked if you wanted tea and crumpets." She scoffed this time glancing at her companion, causing a smirk to cross the Admirals face as she poked at his British birth.

"What did you find?" He asked

"This." Halsey pressed a few buttons and the globe turned into 7 rings. Each named Instillation 01 through 07.

"What are they?" Hood questioned.

"I don't know." Halsey admitted.

"You don't know? What you mean you don't know."

"I thought it was fairly obvious? All they're referred to in the data banks is Halo Rings. Nothing else."

"Not even their location?"

Halsey shook her head, "Still working on it but I'll have more for you soon."

Hood nodded, and gazed up at the rings for a few moments. "If we crack the code on this..."

"Could it be used at _Onyx_? Very likely." Halsey confirmed without Hood finishing his question.

"Hmmm, this could change the war in our favour." Hood said quietly. "Do you think these are the artifacts the Covenant believe will 'transcend' them?"

Halsey actually stopped her typing and frowned thoughtfully, "That's a possibility I hadn't accounted for. If it is, its imperative that we find out where and what these 'Halo's' are, and prevent the Covenant from ever discovering them."

"Agreed..." Hood murmured, "Make it your top priority, in the meantime I'll station a squad of III's at sword base to assist if Zealots ever get through our web."

Halsey let out a long suffering sigh but nodded none the less, knowing it was a fools hope to argue with him about such matters.

Hood nodded back at her, glad to have got his point across, and turned to leave. Collecting his guards on the way out and heading back to work.

* * *

/ Cipritine – Palaven – Trebia \\\

/ 23-11-2156 - Galactic Standard \\\

/ 14:24 PM - Local Time \\\

"What the hell is it?" Primarch Reciucius questioned at the xeno-biologist as he and other important individuals gathered around a large worktop in the morgue. The creature the Primarch was referring to was lying flat on the table, over two meters tall it was packed with muscle under leathery skin and was covered head to toe in thick hair which was patchy and burnt off in places leaving blacked and cracked skin.

"Am I meant to have an answer to that?" The doctor remarked stepping closer and moving its head this way and that way, silently studying it.

"I wasn't expecting a detailed history, just a cursory run down." Reciucius snapped irritably. He was already at the end of his tether with the situation, their investigation had made no progress and this was the first lead that they had. It was the only body found, deep in the burnt out civillian bunkers, empty except for it. All other bodies had likely been destroyed in the orbital bombardment.

"Yes Primarch," The doctor agreed dutifully. "Well at first glance it is obviously strong, like it could take a Krogon strong." He began as a scanner ejected from ceiling panel and began a small decend towards the table. A few moments later an orange light moved up and down the body. "The specimen appear to be built like one too, the hide is thick and the bones are strong, the muscles are weaved in a fashion which might indicated that energy is somewhat stored in the muscles for extra strength output, likely capable of sprinting at great speeds and distances." The doctor examined.

"Teeth are sharp too, probably a carnivore." A different Turian commented poking around in the creature's mouth.

"How so Fedorian?" Another asked.

"Not only are they similar to that of the Batarian's, but the Salarians are opposite, possessing teeth that grind rather than tear to crush plant based matter, though they are capable of eating fishes and other amphibious animals." Fedorian explained, he then proceeded to rake his talons down it's face. "Not a scratch" he mused. Fedorian was the commander for the response fleet that had been sent to Macedyn and had personally brought back the alien.

"Indeed," The doctor agreed. "The young Admiral is right however, this is a predator through and through, though something to note is that it's skulls is deceptively thick and it's brain is in actuality rather small for a creature this big, even the Krogan have bigger boxes than this."

"What are you saying, it's stupid?" Someone asked.

"While not stupid per say, more child like. It's likely to follow instinctual reflexes more often than not, it's certainly too stupid to lead armies."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning there are more races than this single one, either it is or it has client or slave races of some kind to maintain their ships and technology." Fedorian put forward, Reciucius nodding in quiet agreement, simply listening. "This is the muscle."

"We could be looking at another Citadel situation? Independent of Eezo?" The first Turian questioned.

"It seems likely, which is unsettling." Fedorian muttered.

"Hmmm, for now when can do nothing other than wait for more information to come to us. I hope I don't have to say that nothing said in here leaves this room without my express permission?" The room nodded. "Good then you are all dismissed, Doctor, please contact me when you have finished a more in depth analysis of Subject: Macedyn." Reciucius ordered and the Turian nodded as the others began filing out the room.

He himself stayed in the room for a few more moments studying the creature as the doctor began setting up around him before he left.

Standing outside the room waiting with their Omni-tool open was Fedorian talking quietly with a Private. "Primarch." Fedorian greeted. "The survey fleet just sent a data file on their readings from the system. Apparently they detected a few anomalies that might interest you."

The Primarch nodded and turned to the Private waiting patiently, "What is it?"

The Turian stood a little straighter at being directly addressed by the Primarch, "The survey fleet had begun scanning for any different types of radiation to cover their bases and they found this." The Turian tapped away at his Omni-tool and presented a recording of a radiation spectrum. "We've cross referenced it with radiation we know of and it matches nothing either we or anyone else in the galaxy has found and recorded." He reported.

Reciucius frowned, "So it's something they've either created or independently found..." He muttered.

"It's not just that," The Private stated tapping away again. "We found another signature." The hologram changed, adding another spectrum onto the display, it was smaller and different to the first but they held some similarities that even he could see.

"There's a third party." Fedorian deduced.

The Private nodded, "That's what they said as well. The second signature is wild and unpredictable, not to mention it's faded as if it was trying to hide itself. The first is more refined and streamlined, there's also a lot more of it, and we almost completely skipped over the second signature because of it."

"So the larger one is likely to be the fleet that attacked Macedyn, and the second, a scout? A stealth ship?" Reciucius thought.

"Of who though? A client race?" Fedorian muttered.

"I wouldn't think so. Why only send one ship, and try and hide it at that?" Reciucius retorted, shaking his head slightly.

"So a watcher then? Possibly a rival of some sort?" Fedorian continued.

"Perhaps..." The Primarch's mandibles twitched slightly before he turned towards the soldier, "Get survey fleet to see if they can track this radiation." The Private saluted and marched off down the corridor and he then turned to Fedorian. "I'm putting you in charge of this Admiral. I'll be sending several assault fleets to the system to guard the Mass Relay, as soon as a trace is found I want you to follow it." He ordered.

"And if I find them?" Fedorian questioned.

"Destroy them, they turned one of our worlds to obsidian and slaughtered millions. There will be no compromise." Reciucius said gravely.

"I understand." Fedorian replied, eyes turning to stone. "I shall leave immediately." He stated and headed down the corridor.

"Fedorian." Reciucius called causing the Admiral to stop and turn. "Remember they don't use Eezo, but do _not_ underestimate them" The Admiral nodded. "Good luck." Fedorian saluted and continued down the hall. After a short while of contemplation he turned and walked down another back to his office.

* * *

/ Drem – Meridian - Azuro \\\

/ 6-4-2558 - Military Calendar \\\

/ 9:57 am - Local Time \\\

"FUCKING HELL!" Zaeed yelled as he tumbled through the air, tossed aside as a plasma motor destroyed the position he was next too. He was lucky to only be given a flying lesson, the others were instantly incinerated. He lands heavily with a loud grunt as the wind leaves him, Jessie lands with a clatter next to him and he doesn't miss a beat as he grabs it. Still on his back he begins to fire wild rounds down the avenue scoring hits on a few unshielded Jackals and Grunts, even managing to take out an Elite before he returns to cover.

"Covering fire!" A voice yells behind him and half a dozen light blue streaks fill the air above his head towards the Covenant advance.

Taking the unsaid cue, Zaeed rolls onto his stomach and then his knees and begins a frantic but methodical move into a side alley were a group of soldiers is firing. His sixth sense screams at him and he clears the last meter with a dive, dark blue plasma hissed overhead and instead hit a militia man standing from cover. The weak shields they possessed only halted one shot both the other three impacted his body, the plasma burning holes in his chest and even melting off an arm, he didn't even have time to scream.

He stood again and continued further into the alley where Allman was standing with a young private kneeling next to a signal booster. The private had the inside of his wrist facing up where a cobalt holographic screen was projected in the air. "Command, Command do you read?" The private spoke to the screen while he adjusted dials, and knobs on the booster. "Command, this is Squad Tango – Zulu – Echo – 16, do you read?" He spoke again before shaking his head. "Sorry Sir, comms are jammed harder than a Prophets arsehole."

Allman sighed, "Alright no worries private." He turned to Zaeed when he pulled up beside him. "We're pulling back to Delta emplacements, since we can't raise command we have no news on reinforcements but there should be fresh ammo and heavy weapons waiting" He explained and Zaeed simply nodded.

"We better get going then, the Covenant are unrelenting, they'll be here any mi-" Zaeed gets cut off as the entrance of the alley bursts into green flame as a fuel rod shot incinerates the group there in a chorus of screams.

Zaeed, Allman and the private are thankfully only thrown on their backs but the heat sears their skin even through their shields and armour. Neither of the veteran soldiers waste a moment getting back to their feet, not giving a moment to dwell on the fact that the last of their squad was just obliterated, firing at the entrance of the alley were Covenant soldiers are already poking their heads round. An Elite made a blind charge down the entrance but a burst from Jessie broke its shields and a single bullet from Allman dropped it in a heap.

While Zaeed continued laying down fire, Allman turned and grabbed the Private still writhing on the ground in pain, clearly not experienced in fighting otherwise he'd be straight up, and simply threw him through a door in the alley and followed not soon after. When he was sure that the Covenant were suitably wary he unhooked a grenade and primed it, turning to follow through the door as soon as he threw it. The explosion is loud, but the roars of pain were louder and Zaeed makes sure to shoot a burst into the booster before the door closes behind him.

The empty room is filled with the sound of heavy breathing, and the private still quietly groaning. "This your first engagement kid?" Allman asked eventually, standing straight.

"Y-yes sir. I shipped less than a month ago." The Private groaned.

"An unfortunate place to pop your cherry." Allman snorted. "And stop groaning, you in pain Private?" He questioned.

"I-No Sir?" The private stopped groaning and actually thought for a moment.

Allman walked up to the Private and tapped him on the shoulder pauldron, "This here Marine, is one of the most high tech piece of equipment in the HDE's ground arsenal, and you have the pleasure of wearing it. It senses when you've be sent flat on your ass and injects you with a handy little stim that will get you back on your feet. Next time you trip over I expect you to be on your feet and dancing the Kankan in front of the Covenant unless they spot your ugly ass and aim their pea shooters in you unfortunate direction." He clapped the kid over the helmet. "That understood shiny?"

"Shiny?" The private muttered.

"You're a FNG, your armours clean and shiny." Zaeed answered him with a gesture to their ICS's, the Private while not 'shiny' it was only covered in a light layer of dirt and shoot, whereas Zaeed and Allman's were pot marked with burns and gouges from plasma.

"I see..." He muttered.

"Well, we need to get the next defensive line; we should be able to cut though these buildings." Allman said accessing his own holographic screen on his wrist. As if to reinforce that point, a large dent suddenly appeared in the door followed by an angry roar. "Alright Private, I've synced our VID's together. Welcome to the squad." A green diamond appeared above the Private, above that was the name Pvt. Bailey.

"Time to go." Zaeed muttered as another dent appeared in the door and the other two nodded in agreement.

They swiftly moved out the room and manoeuvred through the buildings back towards friendly troops that had pulled further back into the colony. It was difficult trying to avoid undue attention, with just the three of them in close quarters against an Elite or Brute it wouldn't end well for them.

So with careful practice they avoided the commotion outside as the Covenant forces advanced further, plasma weaponry firing caused nervous glances towards the windows they passed. Eventually however the plasma grew louder, and echoed around the walls more, Allman gestured for the three to go low, and they carefully crept around the corner to see a large group of Covenant fighting a heavily entrenched Human position inside a burnt out building.

Keeping low, Allman once again gestured and this they moved into more tactical positions behind the aliens. One after another a group of the Covenant was highlighted to him with a red outline and the intelligence inside his armour calculated the perfect spot to lob a grenade.

He blinked green and the icon for Bailey did so too, a few moments later Allman's did and Zaeed unhooked another grenade and primed it. Allman blinked green again and the three threw their explosives amongst the aliens. The explosions caused dust to fall from the roof and a small section of a wall to collapse but it was worth it, of the near two dozen aliens fighting, only four were still alive but were easily mopped up by the other Human squad.

"Thanks for the assist." An army soldier stood, as dictated by his beige armour. "They attacked before we could properly set ourselves."

The three marines stood as well and made their way over to the defensive line. "You're welcome." Allman stated. "This delta?"

"That it is," The same solider replied as the others around him began moving around to further reinforce the area they were stationed. "That was an advanced party sent to try and flank, hence why we're here. The main body hasn't reached the line yet but scouts and mortar fire already hammer it." The solider stepped closer and held his hand out, "Captain Valery."

Allman shook, "Sergeant Major Allman, Gunnery Massani, Private Bailey." He introduced. "We're what's left of Echo – 16."

"Pleasure. You best get going, we can hold here. At delta there's ammo and rations, maybe even a chance to catch some winks before the Covenant advance arrives." Valery said causing the marines to nod.

"Good luck captain." Allman offered as the trio continued through the buildings past the defensive line.

Another minute or so longer and they exited out into a large plaza, large metal walls were placed at the entrance to the avenue and Valery's warning was correct as Covenant scouts were testing its defences if the gunfire was any indication. Several vehicles were being maintained in the back, some were simply being rearmed.

Further at the back, surrounded by sandbags were half a dozen Rhino's with their barrels aimed in the sky, sporadically firing plasma shells over the skyline. A swarm of engineers moved rapidly around making sure that the gas canisters were always filled.

To their right were rows and rows of stretchers filled with wounded soldiers, Marines, Army, Militia, even a few ODST and Rangers dotted around. A dozen army troopers tended to them, the only difference in armour being the white pouldren with a red cross denoting the medic. A little to the left of them were more stretchers, this time covered with white sheets sometimes dotted with red blotches, there were hundreds in total.

In the centre, likely were a fountain of some sort once stood, was a pile of crates, some open and others not. Gathered around were soldiers of every branch digging through crates or simply waiting, others were in a line in front of a man in beige armour holding a data pad.

The squad approached as a few moved off, the inventory manager nodded at them as they arrived.

"Echo-16 here for a resupply," Allman greeted.

The man snorted. "Yeah, just you and everybody else." He nodded in the vague direction of the masses. He brought up the data pad and began tapping, "Name, rank and full squad portfolio please." He asked.

"Sergeant Major Zack Allman, squad leader of Tango – Zulu – Echo 16 consisting of Gunnery Sergeant Zaeed Massani and Private Billy Bailey." Allman stated.

"Standard resupply?" He asked and Allman nodded, he tapped a few more times. "Right you're cleared to go, ammo is to your left, rations right. Medical is behind me with the white crates. If you want something heavier you'll have to wait for the supply drop like everybody else."

"And how long is that?" Massani questioned.

"Covenant anti-air and banshee's have been shooting down Pelicans and Kestrels all morning." As if contrary to that point a banshee spiralled out of the sky in a purple fire and crashed into a building behind them as two Broadswords roared overhead guns blazing. "But then again so have we, air-force is working overtime so you looking around early afternoon for the skies to be clear enough."

Zaeed nodded and three moved off so that more squads pulling back from Charlie could get to the logistics officer. The three worked quietly, Bailey despite being new, knew what he was doing as he grabbed ammo and grenades with ease for his MA6.

Zaeed did the same while Allman grabbed some for his M405 and smokes and a prototype EMP grenade designed to knock out Covenant shields and plasma weaponry, it had only been cleared for live field testing a few months ago as it had the habit of knocking out friendly electronics too.

When they were fully rearmed, Zaeed headed over to the rations while Bailey and Allman gathered medical supplies. Grabbing three dirt coloured bags of rations labelled -Chilli Curry- he walked over a large area covered with a dirty green tarp, a large hole sat near one of the corners with its edges singed. Underneath what must have been nearly a few hundred soldiers crammed together either eating or leaning against each other in a vain attempt to nap.

He found a small area not taken and un-slung his combat pack, opening the compartment he shifted through and fished out his compact burner and set it on the floor and began heating up the rations in what was hopefully an edible state.

A minute or two later the pair reached him in the disorganised mess, Allman carrying in his arms two boxes, one white the other blue, and handed them to Zaeed. Bailey on the other hand was fiddling with a new radio booster. He nodded thanks and once again disappeared into his pack, this time returning with the same coloured boxes attached to cables. He detached the cables and replaced them on the new boxes, stims and medi-gel directly interfaced with the armour as he reattached his pack.

Allman took the rations off the burner and opened them, giving one to each member of the squad. Thankfully R&D had invested some time into improving the taste of rations, in the thought of 'boosting' moral. Zaeed snorted gaining some strange looks from his companions.

They ate in silence, nothing but the background noise from the other soldiers and the Rhino's firing. Both Allman and Zaeed were done in under a minute, having learned to eat their food quickly Bailey however was taking his time to 'savour' the meal. Likely hadn't eaten in a day or two. He hadn't and he doubted Allman had either, but they were distracted from educating him when the gunfire from behind the wall began slowly petering off before cutting entirely.

Bailey must have regretted it a moment later when a few gunshots rang out from the centre of the plaza, immediately gaining the attention of every combat able soldier in the area. A grizzled ODST was standing on a small tower of crates, what he presumed to be his squad was gathered around the base. "ALRIGHT YOU WANKERS GATHER ROUND!" He yelled in the most British accent he'd ever heard.

It took a few moments but it seemed that more had apparently been camping out in the buildings as eventually nearly 6000 Human soldiers, Army, Militia, Marines, ODST and Rangers had surrounded the man, cramped together and standing on other objects to all fit. He nodded and holstered his DMR on the mag-plates on his back, "Alright you cunts, I'm Major Pierce and I'm now in charge of this shit show since our previous CO decided he couldn't take the pressure and was atomised by a plasma mortar." Pierce began receiving a few strange looks, "Now, you should have heard by now but the advanced parties sent by our friendly neighbourhood xeno's have finally backed off which means the main assault is on its way and you lot need to put your bodies between them and that beautiful wall behind me! Understood?"

"Sir Yes Sir!" The small army replied.

The major nodded, "Good, now I understand some of you are either depleted or without squads entirely so split between your branches and squad up. You have 15 minutes."

They did so without complaint and Zaeed and Bailey waited patiently as Allman disappeared into the crowd of bodies as the mob tried to separate into coherent groups. At 12 minutes almost on the dot he returned with three others in tow, a large nearly 7ft man was the first to catch his eye, carrying a M92 [C]AWS shotgun, the new MAC system allowed it to fire slugs as well as buckshot making it a deadly close-mid range weapon now, a W/AV M6 G/GNR slung over his shoulder, the improvement of laser tech in space also transferred to the ground, Spartan Lasers were much more common these days especially on the front lines. Heavy CQC/Demolitions.

The next was another man, roughly 5ft 9, unlike his counterpart he was small and carried a BR61 SR Battle Rife in his arms and a SRS101C Sniper Rifle across his back, which was surprising considering his frame. The recoil, for a lack of a better description, hit like a truck. Its predecessor the 99C was already a powerful Anti-material rifle in its own right, now however with the magnetically accelerated slugs, it could pierce even Wraith armour in two shots. A Designated Marksman.

The final was a woman, about 5ft 7, all she carried was a M8 SMG, the reason being her shoulder pad was coloured white with the standard red medical cross and a large pack across her back, filled with hopefully medical supplies. The Medic.

"Gents, this is Corporal Jacob Kidman, Corporal Anton Preissner and Private First Class Abigail Fletcher." Allman introduced in order. "This is Gunnery Zaeed Masanni, my second, and Private Billy Bailey our resident 'shiny'."

Zaeed nodded in greeting while Bailey saluted, causing Zaeed to clip him over the head. "What?! They're all higher rank then me..." He complained.

"Salutes are for ceremonies, or those that are _really_ high up." Zaeed reprimanded, he turned back to the new three, "Pleasure, how long you been in service?"

"6 years mate? Why?" Kidman replied in a slight Australian accent.

"Get a feel of your experience." Zaeed replied.

"3 years." Preissner said in a quiet voice, a tinge of German accent sneaking through.

"8, however most was spent in the Haven sector." Fletcher replied and both Zaeed and Allman nodded. This was good, with Allman as the squad lead, himself and Bailey as standard Infantrymen and three specialists it was a good all round squad. Three more names appeared on his HUD.

"We can give each other's biographies later, right now we have a job to do." Allman stated as he noticed Major Pierce once again raise his DMR in the air to gain everyone's attention.

"Alright that should deal with that, if you haven't got a complete squad or haven't got one then wait behind, I'll have to sort out you useless shits later on. As for the rest of you, beyond that wall are a series of trenches and bunkers, you're going to fill those up and shoot at any purple bastard marching up that avenue." He announced.

A hand raise in the audience, "What about enemy ground vehicles and flyers? We have barely any lasers and rockets left!" he yelled

"Before command cut out they mentioned a convoy heading our way. Panthers, Mantis', Cobra's, the works."

"And how long is that gonna take?" Someone else questioned

"Fuck knows kid, comms went out around 3 hours ago, so anywhere from half an hour to tomorrow." He answered with a non-committal shrug. He raised a hand to his ear. "Alright forward observers say the attack is on its way so get your asses moving. There are tunnels to the defensive lines in the buildings to my left and right behind me. FALL OUT AND KICK SOME ALIEN ASS!"

"OORAH!" The entire plaza yelled at once.

"Alright let's move Echo-16." Allman stated as the squad began moving with the crowd. Two streams made themselves apparent as they headed through the buildings, a restaurant and a hotel, and into two manmade tunnels dug through the floor.

They were dirty and dark, somewhere water was dripping through judging by the annoying noise it made. It was intermittently lit by LED bars but it was still dark enough that he'd have missed the first turn off if he hadn't turned on his night vision. He glanced at Allman but he gestured for them to continue.

They passed another before turning at the third, they continued for a little while longer until they reached a ramp which led to a bright light. The tunnel opened into a trench, it was about waist high with the walls and floor patched with metal plates, some scarred with plasma burns and stained with red blood.

Allman kept leading them forward, past other squads who had already begun setting up along the wall facing the avenue. A bunker drew closer but they passed that too, sliding past as the trench widened to accommodate it. They passed two more before stopped between another and set up, Zaeed glanced around and surveyed the area. The avenue was a lot wider at this area, a frigate would have been able to park here along the road without much difficulty, Delta being much closer to the city centre. In front of them was another trench filling up with soldiers, in front of them was the open road with Covenant bodies sporadically around, corpses left where they fell. He glanced behind and saw the two trenches they passed, the four slopped with the avenue to allow all to fire at the same time.

He set Jessie down against the wall and sat down next to it; he felt an nudge on his shoulder and turned to see Kidman offering a packet to him. "Gum?" He asked.

He looked at the packet for a second before reaching forward and taking one, "Thanks." He muttered and reached for his helmet.

Kidman did the same revealing red hair and green eyes, "Not an issue mate, all in this together am I right?" He grinned, taking his own piece.

Zaeed popped his in his mouth and chuckled slightly. "That we are." He slipped his helmet back on in time to hear the announcement over the comm.

Overwatch is pulling back, Covenant advance one minute out Major Pierce announced calmly over the battle-net.

Zaeed pounded Kidman's shoulder and then tapped his helmet and the Australian got the idea and placed his backon, grabbing his shotgun next to him and yanking the pump.

He sent a sideways glance down the line at the rest of the squad and silently praised Allman's ability to pick a spot, they were slightly to the right from the centre of the trench and in the second from the front allowed Preissner to utilize his sniper and for Kidman and Fletcher to still be in effective range.

Being slightly off the centre and flanks allowed them to support either if the first trench fell and the Covenant pushed for a piercing attack or a flank while staying out of the main field of fire.

"CONTACTS, COMING UP THE AVENUE!" A nameless voice yelled and everyone zeroed in on the road as alien silhouettes began appearing.

Weapons free

And the world erupted in fire.

* * *

(End)

Sorry for the break, going full time a work has taking up much of my time and without a solid schedule it's hard to find times to work on the story.

In any case I hoped you enjoyed this chapter, more was revealed about the Forerunners, the Turians are making progress and Meridian is heating up.

For those who want Master Chief, patience. Good things come to those that wait.

Kinda hoping it's the same with Infinite really.

On another note, my technical knowledge of Mass Effect physics, weaponry and such isn't the best. Any nerds out there willing to help would be greatly appreciated, I'm not particularly great with maths either so getting actual numbers down for the Humans would be great too, so just PM if you're interested.

-Red

Ps. The Doc editor keeps getting ride of some of my lines. Any writers among you know either why this happens and how to stop it?


	5. One Step Forwards, Two Steps Back

/ Unknown – High Charity – Unknown \

/ Cycle 149 - 9th Age of Reclamation \

/ Unit 9.3 - Covenant Battle Calendar \

"The war against the Humans isn't progressing as we'd hoped; they should've been long extinct by now." A brash voice spoke

"Not even the oracle could have predicted their tenacity, we underestimated them, and we have paid for it. However, their arrogance in the face of the Great Journey will be their undoing." An elderly voice replied.

"Their undoing? Their fortress line may be falling but how many more holy soldiers will it take to breach their lines, how many ships to glass their worlds? How many more years until their last bastion falls? Each loss we suffer is a delay to the great journey we cannot abide, our lines are stretched, and supplies are low. There are whispers of the Sangheili losing faith in the council!" The first replied angrily.

"Every loss is for a worthy cause!" The second went.

"Peace brothers, arguing amongst ourselves will do us no good." A calm voice interjected. "The Human's time will come of that I am sure, however the report a Jiralhanae scouting fleet has sent is of more concern at the moment."

A one of the two voices sighed, "You speak the truth as always brother, I too have read the report." The second said.

"Hmm, too think that another coalition of species exists in the galaxy. A democratic one too, humph, fools." The first muttered, before a crunch followed it.

"Even the Holy Forerunners hadn't fully explored the depths of the galaxy Regret, the chances of species gathering together for security isn't unlikely, nor will the methods be the same. We've had the Sangheili as stout allies to defend and wage war for us. Others are not so fortunate. Nor enlightened." The calm voice explained.

"You truly are the wisest of our order, Truth." The second voice spoke.

The third chuckled slightly, "You flatter Mercy."

The three individuals speaking were the High Prophets of the Covenant - Truth, Mercy and Regret. They currently sat in an inner sanctum, specially created for the three High Prophets to dine in. The room's gravity lowered allowing their fragile bodies to sit outside their specially crafted chairs on plush, cushioned seats to eat. The table before them filled to the brim with alien delicacies available only to their order.

The sanctum was large for only the three, a large window overlooked the cityscape in the enormous station and the Forerunner Keyship.

For a few minutes nothing filled the room other than the sound of eating, "What is it we should do with the new interlopers?" Mercy asked at last. "Induct them into the Covenant, with force or without?"

"If we were to do so, we likely would have to force them. The files downloaded from their systems indicate that this 'Citadel Council' have existed almost as long as the Covenant, they would not likely join of their own will." Truth replied after taking a drink from a glass of green liquid. "Nor would they liked to after the admittedly foolish attack on their world."

"Not to mention the Relays they use and the Citadel they inhabit, they do not appear Forerunner in origin but the Jiralhanae reported that they responded to the Holy Song. If so they must be punished for abusing Holy Artefacts!" Mercy yelled.

Truth raised a hand to the other Prophet, "Calm yourself Mercy." He soothed, "If what the scouting fleet said is true, their ships are weak, weaker than even the Humans at the outbreak of the war."

"Even so, they are certainly numerous, and we'd have to divert ships and soldiers away from the Human front to combat them, the Humans are already counter-attacking to regain their fortress worlds. We do not have the ships nor supplies to fight a two-front war of this magnitude." Regret added.

"And so, we will let them." Truth chuckled.

"What do you propose?" Regret questioned.

"The Citadel species are too numerous and spread out due to the Relays, we'd have to commit generous amounts of ships and resources to rooting out every planet and crushing resistance, while on the other hand the Humans are confined to the Orion arm and are packed together. Once they regain their fortress line, they will not attack us, they are too few, allowing us to focus on the Council. Once they are subjugated, we turn back to the Humans and CRUSH them underneath our numbers." He punctuated the small speech by slamming his fist on his chair.

The other two Prophets nodded along, "Of course, the Great Journey stops for no one!" Regret cheered.

* * *

/ Unknown – Unknown -Unknown \

/ 12-4-2558 - Military Calendar \

/ 1:14 am - Local Time \

The purple sky was dark and overcast on the alien planet, perfect for infiltrations. Hidden in the underbrush, a single soldier watched the treetops for any sign of movement that might indicate a watcher. Jackal snipers were a threat even to them, their incredible eyesight outmatched anything from Earth.

The clouds cleared ever so slightly allowing light from the planet's three moons to shine onto the forest, silhouetting the lanky figure of the creature he was watching out for.

Without prompting the armour outlined it in red for targeting. Not a second later a cyan laser pierced it's brain with a quiet hiss causing it to drop from its perch high in the trees with a dull thump.

The solider stilled for a minute longer as he waited to see if any more sentries had noticed their dead comrade, a light blinked green on his HUD and the solider rose from his position, weapons raised in caution despite the all clear. He swept the area once again before raising his hand and gesturing forwards.

Two more shadows appeared from the ground further back, their weapons too raised. In perfect synchrony they stepped forwards and weaved their way through the alien forest, sweeping their weapons this and that way, silent even with their large statures.

It was a few minutes before a purple glow grew brighter and brighter as they neared the edge of the forest. The trio crouched at the tree line and gazed at the sprawling Covenant outpost before them, the Citadel centre piece reaching into the sky.

"Numbers?" The first shadow questioned.

_"Few thousand, all manner of troops, equipment and vehicles. You know the usual, squad verse a small army situation"_ A slightly synthesized feminine voice spoke in his ear.

"That's not really an issue for us." A male voice commented from one of the shadows.

"Linda?" The first shadow spoke again.

_"I've got no visuals; the tree line is too thick to see through from my position"_ Another voice replied in his ear.

"Can you relocate?" He questioned.

The comm was quiet for a moment, _"Negative, ground isn't high enough to see over the trees and the tree's themselves won't support my weight, I've already tested"_

"Understood, relocate to the South West of the outpost, directly opposite our position." He ordered.

_"Copy, Oscar Mike"_ The comm fell silent once again.

"Fred, rendezvous with her." He ordered the male shadow at his side. The shadow disappeared without a word.

"Is it wise to split John?" The other shadow finally spoke, breaking the silence with a third female voice.

"If we're all in the same place we'll simply be overwhelmed with numbers, superior capabilities or not. In pairs we'll have less-contacts between us, and they'll have less to shoot at." John replied, shifting his position slightly to cover the space Fred had left. The female hummed in understanding and went back to watching the outpost in silence.

A little while later Fred's voice spoke over the comm :We're in position:

_"Understood, begin the attack"_ John ordered and immediately the two SPARTAN's exploded from their positions, reaching speeds of 50km/h in seconds as they raced to cross the distance between the cover of the forest and the outpost.

They were half-way across the plains when the keen eyed Jackals spotted them, in the time it took to process this fact and raise the alarm the two super soldiers had cleared the rest of the distance and were already shooting at guards too slow to process the alarm atop the stout wall.

Kelly began accelerating once more as the distance closed and lowered her shoulder, slamming into the purple door, denting it heavily. John, slightly behind now but weighing more, activating the boosters on his shoulders, did the same and the door flew off it hinges into a small courtyard.

John rolled with it and hurled a handful of grenades as he rose at the stupefied Covenant forces, the explosions eliminating a few dozen before they could react in time. Kelly blurred past him and turned around, firing at the Jackals still atop the wall, each shot finding it's mark between their large eyes.

Plasma splashed against their shields now and both darted for cover as more and more alien soldiers arrived now. :Fred, Status?: John asked into the comms.

_"Breached the outer wall, pushing inwards, plenty of contacts"_ Fred replied after a beat, the sound of gunfire almost drowning his voice out even with the helmet dampening it.

_"Understood"_ He said curtly. He refocused on the battle, and in time with Kelly, both turned out of their cover and began lighting up the arrayed Covenant forces that had gathered. Their commander had apparently not responded in strength yet as they were scattered and shooting without any sort of co-ordination.

The SPARTANS's easily tore them apart, John's M742 SAW ripped apart bodies, shielded and unshielded alike while Kelly's DMR downed targets with every well-placed shot. Between the two, they easily waded through the alien garrison, picking apart resistance even when it became tighter and more organised.

It was likely between the pincer of the four SPARTANS's, the base commander had no idea who to face first. These supply outposts tended to be lightly garrisoned, with few heavy weapons or vehicles if any.

John ducked back into cover to reload his SAW, the weapon was bulky and heavy with the MAC technology fitted into it, the added 250 round drum-mag made the weapon quite weighty, but was no issue for a SPARTAN.

He saw Kelly drop back in further up as her shields dropped from prolonged fire, and he stepped back out to give her cover. The LMG kicked in his hands as it spat rounds down range, a dozen Elites were killed in seconds as the mass accelerated rounds ripped apart their shields and then their armour.

Kelly span back out of cover and took down several jackals in quick time, before being caught flat footed as some armoured came Brutes charging forward and began plucking away at their shields. Fortunately, John had seen the same thing and swung his SAW in their direction, firing in short bursts now that the opposition had been thinned. Between the two they dropped the zealous shock-troops from 9 to 0 before they got with 10 feet of the duo. Kelly and John shared a look, Brutes guarding a supply outpost?

Once more pushing up the duo continued taking apart the limited resistance, the numbers large but uncoordinated proving little trouble as most ran straight at the guns hoping for glory or an honourable death at the hands of the Demons, who were more than willing to help them along. Brutes becoming more prevalent as they edged closer and closer to the citadel entrance.

10 minutes. That's how long it took for the 4 SPARTAN's to eliminate the garrison. The pincer had worked perfectly, and the base's commander hadn't been able to efficiently target either party well enough to neutralise them, leaving the Covenant ground forces at the tender mercy of the most highly skilled special forces squad the Humans had to offer.

The two pairs met at the entrance to the citadel among the wreckage of the several shade turrets and the corpses on Covenant soldiers. Fred nudged the body of a mangled Brute with his foot, "Brutes on a base garrison? Doesn't that seem a little weird to you?" He questioned.

"We had the same thought," Kelly replied.

"Something is happening behind the scenes, rarely do the Brutes outnumber the Elites in an engagement. Especially for something like this, a Sangheili commander would never allow it." Fred commented

"Perhaps they're not commanded by an Elite?" Linda theorised.

John stepped past, towards the door into the citadel. "Later." He remarked, he unslung a pack from his lower back and chucked it towards Fred who easily caught it. "Linda, Fred set the charges, Kelly with me. We're clearing the tower."

He held his hand up towards the console and the red lettering turned purple, the locked entrance opened to an empty hall and the two SPARTANS's proceeded in weapons raised, Kelly switched her DMR for a shotgun and John his SAW for a simple Assault Rifle.

The halls were clear apart from a few patrols here and there, each was as easily dealt with as the last. They finally reached the control room after 5 minutes of room clearing and stacked on the door, "_Detecting a large group of hostiles gathered on the far side of the room Chief"_ The female spoke again.

"The door." John spoke, and a few seconds later it opened, expectantly a hail of plasma immediately sped through the door blocking their entrance. They waited patiently for the plasma weapons to overheat to get their window and primed two grenades each.

When the fire began decreasing in strength, they threw their grenades through the door, following only when the explosions cut off the plasma entirely. The only guards left 'standing' in the room were a small group of unshielded Jackals and a Brute chieftain without his hammer, which lay across the room and mangled beyond use. They were dead within seconds.

Kelly surveyed the room as they lowered their weapons with the danger now clear, "Linda was right, there are no Elites here."

John remained silent for a moment before walking to a now abandoned console, reaching to the back of his helmet and pulling out a chip, slipping it into a compartment on the console. A second later a blue feminine figure appeared staring up the giant. "Find out what you can Cortana, then set the base to blow."

Cortana snorted, "Easy as pie, you'd think to give a girl a challenge every now and then John?" She snarked and disappeared.

John shrugged, "Ask command for harder missions." He turned to Kelly, "Return outside and request a supply drop, we have several more bases to hit."

Kelly nodded and left without a word and Cortana once more appeared. "Done, yank me." John did so and slipped the data chip back into his helmet. It was understandable why she was bored really, Cortana was a unique AI, despite advances in AI technology into the sixth Generation now, she still the most advanced AI in Human hands while being third generation, being a flash clone of Halsey herself.

Technically being 9 years of age she should have entered rampancy 2 years ago, not soon after being permanently assigned to him, but Halsey took her back and a month later she was as good as new. Better processing power, more storage longer life. She was the oldest Smart-AI in history that wasn't rampart, the fifth and sixth generations while had a longer lifespan of 9 and 12 years respectively were younger.

He heard her groan in his ears, "_This is so boring, why don't they put us on colony defence or something, these types of missions are hardly worth our time._" She moaned.

John rolled his eyes, "Because HIGHCOM knows that as soon as word of us slips out the entire Covenant armada will descend on the planet, besides _these_ types of missions are important too." He spoke.

"_I'm sure we could take 'em, these raids are a bit above our pay grade don't you think?" _She replied.

John rolled his eyes again and slapped his AR besides his SAW on the back mag-plates. "Yes _we_ could, the others defending the colony would have a harder time." He reasoned, turning to leave. "Besides, if you're this bored stay behind."

"_And miss all the fun? There are only so many games of solitaire one can play before you go crazy."_ Cortana replied.

John snorted as he thumped out the room, it was going to be a long night.

* * *

/ Orbit – Macedyn – Abtion \

/ 18-12-2156 - Galactic Standard \

/ 09:24 AM - Palaven Standard \

Admiral Fedorian gazed out the bridge view port on his flagship the Dreadnaught _Praetorian_, as the fleet numbering near two thousand Turian vessels exited FTL into real space a few thousand miles from _Macedyn's_ orbit. The stoic visage he usually wore fell into a grim frown as he gazed once more again against the burnt-out husk of _Macedyn_. The blackened surface interlaced with trails of red and orange dictated that the former colony was still much cooling since the attack weeks ago.

"Admiral, all ships have reported in. We're green across the board." Comms spoke from his terminal.

Fedorian blinked himself out of his stupor and nodded, "Good, split up into the pre-prepared groups and patrol patterns, reports are to be every 2 hours." He turned away from the view port as fighters and corvettes streamed passed and walked to the view table in the centre of the bride and brought up an orange image of the solar system as the floor beneath him vibrated, the _Praetorian_ and her task force moving into low orbit around _Macedyn_. "Launch probes and set them to prioritise the radiation we discovered earlier, and contact the scientists, I want to know if they have discovered anything else of value."

"Yes Admiral," Several voices answered, and activity picked up on the bridge.

After a few minutes a voice spoke up, "Admiral, the TSF _Sipilia_ is requesting to dock and Dr. Pinabia Velitumus to come aboard."

Thoughts swirling it took a moment for Fedorian to answer. "Granted." He said and turned and marched out the bridge knowing his XO would briefly take command.

He easily traced the path to the meeting room placed within every command ship nodding at the singular guard present.

He completed idle work on a terminal set into the table while he waited for the doctor to arrive, who did so in good time and entered the room without ceremony, Fedorian standing to greet him.

"Admiral Fedorian, pleasure to finally meet you." The doctor addressed stepping forward and quickly saluting.

"Doctor Velitumus, welcome aboard." Fedorian reciprocated the salute and gestured to the table. "I gathered you have something for me?"

"Yes Admiral, if I may?" He indicated towards the terminal and at Fedoiran's acquiescence he approached and activated his omni-tool, connecting to the terminal.

A few moments later an orange hologram appeared above the table depicting various scans, diagrams and reading. Most flew straight over the poor Admiral's head, but he recognised the general layout of the radiation signatures that were discovered on their first excursion.

"It was hard work, but we managed to not only separate the two signatures but trace them both as well." Velitumus began.

"So long?" Fedorian questioned.

"Radiation is already a hard thing to track in the void of space, no particles to transport across as you can imagine, not to mention it's completely different to anything this galaxy has seen before."

Fedorian brought a talon to his mandibles. "How different exactly, can it be weaponised?"

"I couldn't tell you without a LOT more time to study it and without corrupted samples, as for how different. Try a different dimension all together." The scientist stated blankly.

Fedorian blinked. "I'm sorry?"

Velitumus held up his talons and a placating gesture, "The laws of Physics dictate that there are three dimensions that we move along, Left and Right – Forward and Back – Up and Down. We were extensively scanning the area of the most concentration of radiation when we discovered something peculiar, there was no entry or exit, it simply appeared."

"How so?"

"Take our Eezo drives for example, when we enter and exit from FTL there are clear and defined points where a ship activates and deactivates its drive upon leaving and re-entering real space. The FTL these aliens use operates on a completely different dimension to ours, the likely chance is we don't have the technology to even begin to understand it let alone reconstruct it." The doctor sighed. "The radiation itself doesn't even belong here, it has no signature or structure that suggests that it belongs in the normal chemical, physical or even biological list of elements, more of an anomaly than even Element Zero when it was first discovered. It. Does. Not. Belong. Here." Velitumus finished.

Fedorian leaned back into his chair. This did not bode well, not only has this race appeared to have weaponised plasma to a truly frightening degree, and now they apparently travelled on a different dimension. How were they meant to counter this?

He rubbed his mandibles again as thoughts continued to circle. "You said you had found a way to track it?" He asked after a few moments of silence.

Velitumus' own mandibles twitched, "Not track exactly, more like predict." He turned to the terminal again and another diagram appeared, this time appearing like a cloud. "This is a radiation cloud left behind from the interlopers, can you see how it is slightly orientated?" Velitumus highlighted the area and Fedorian nodded. "Imagine it like a cloud of dust that throw in the air and then walk through, the dust will follow the same sort of direction before you pass completely through it, yes?" Fedorian nodded again. "Well we have theorised that the radiation '_sticks'_ to the ship in the alternate-dimension and is shaken upon re-entry, with this technique we can get a reasonable predication of which direction they have come from and where they are going, distances is another matter, perhaps there could be a method based on the amount of radiation present in the cloud before dispersing but more data is need before we can follow that line of thought." The doctor finished.

Fedorian continued nodding thoughtfully. "So? Where did they come from and where did they go?" He questioned.

Once again, the holographic image changed, this time to a map of the surrounding systems and their connecting relays. "The largest signature, the fleet must have come from the relay because there is no signs of an entry cloud, however they did leave an exit one." The map changed to include a large lane marked out heading further into Turian territory, several systems were highlighted to include colonies.

Silence reigned for a few minutes as Fedorian absorbed that information. "I see…and the other."

"The other must have followed the fleet as it has a marked entry cloud coming from the relay, it exits from the same point in the opposite direction, back through the relay." Velitumus explained.

"They know we exist?" Fedorian mused.

"If not, they will soon."

Fedorian nodded in finality, "Thank-you Doctor, please compile your research and send it to the Primarch as soon as possible." He ordered, going back to looking at the highlighted Turian colonies.

Velitumus nodded back and saluted before swiftly leaving the room.

The Turian Admiral tapped his talon on the desk, "VI, bring up a list of Turian colonies in the highlighted area." He called and several planets appeared besides the map with their names and population. "List them in terms of defensibility and corresponding defence fleet." The order of the planets changed. "Now remove the planets with a larger fleet size of 50." The planets reduced to three. His talon began tapping again, "Now account for distance from Palaven and the edge of Turian space, favour the latter." The planets reduced to two. "Maximise." He ordered and lent forward. The first planet had a population of 35 million and was on of the furthest in the highlighted area, the second was much smaller and had a population of just 17 million. The defence fleets were 25 and 13 respectively, both easy targets but which one did they go for? He looked at the closest one, Subject: Macedyn was a dumb predator through and through, probably high off a victory and was looking for a close easy target.

He pressed the intercom on his terminal, "XO Laedros?" He asked into it.

_"Yes Admiral?"_ A feminine voice answered.

"Tell the fleet to prepare to jump to _Linraka_, Talon 13 to 17 are to remain behind to guard the relay." He ordered.

_"Sir?"_ She asked in confusion.

"We have a lead," He replied simply, standing from his chair and heading for the door.

The comm was silent for a beat, _"Yes Admiral!"_

* * *

/ Slipspace – Enroute to New Rome – Entroute to Stellar \

/ 17-4-2558 - Military Calendar\

/ 11:55 am - Ship Time \

A klaxon blared once before being replaced by French accented voice, _"Attention, Attention: General Quarters, we will be exiting slipspace in 5 minutes. All essential personnel report to your stations and begin last minute checks. Pilots to your fighters and prepare for a hot AO, exit trajectory is confirmed hostile. I repeat all essential personnel to their stations and pilots to their wings, hostiles confirmed in exit trajectory. That is all." _The comm went quiet and the klaxon replaced it along with a yellow light flashing intermittently.

"Thank you, Stewart." A man said.

"Always a pleasure Admiral Cole." The AI replied, dressed as a traditional French Butler complete with a comb-over and moustache.

"We need be combat ready the moment we leave Slipspace, we'll be exiting pretty much on top of them." He murmured. The last few weeks had been hell on his stress levels, between him and Drescher they'd destroyed more Covenant fleets and ships trying to reclaim the Stalingrad line than the past half-decade, and this was thankfully the last stop before the encirclement was complete.

With his larger fleet of near 600 vessels he was to retake _New Rome_ which had been turned into a supply-point to launch further inwards, the Covenant weren't completely stupid and had realised what was happening not soon after it had begun, they were trying to reinforce key points to hold to either keep the pocket open or empty it before it closed.

While he would have preferred Drescher's help in taking the system, she had to split her fleet of 450 vessels and close off the pocket further ahead at _Aura_ and _Haige_. He was to distract the numerous vessels in _New Rome_ to prevent them reinforcing and take the system. Hence the larger fleet.

He had started the campaign with 358 vessels of all classes, most have been destroyed and none were without plasma scars, even his own flagship bore them, for this last push his had to temporarily absorb some QRF's into his battlegroup, some were with him now as the vanguard, while others were to slip in later once the lines had crossed.

He stood from his chair above the command trenches sent into the floor of the bridge and strode over to the large holotable behind him. Pressing a button on the terminal brought up the most up to date, intel that HMI prowlers had sent on the system a few hours ago.

The Covenant fleet currently numbered 649 vessels, a number disadvantage was never a good thing, but his opening moves should eliminate that factor. The most pressing one was the fact that they had _12_ CAS-Assault Carriers in that number, he only had 4 Resolute's in his fleet including his own flagship. Considering there were 13 in total it was a large margin. Two were at Earth and Reach. He had four, and Drescher had another two, the rest were either receiving repairs or upgrades in the shipyards.

The Resolute's were the only ship class capable of facing a CAS in direct combat with a large margin for success, thanks to their Honeycomb superstructure, allowing them to tank an almost unbelievable amount on fire without failing. However, he also had three Punic's and several Artemis' that should even the odds in terms of firepower and numbers.

He stood from the holotable and walked back to the trenches, standing above them and staring out the viewport into the blackness of slipspace.

"1 minute until exit Admiral!" One of the bridge officers called from below him.

"Red Alert, move to full combat readiness." He commanded immediately.

The yellow light turned red and the intermittent klaxon became continues, the 180° viewport at the front of the bridge was covered in metallic plating and was instead replaced by a live recording. Across the ship the bright fluorescents blinked out and a softer light blue replaced it, the darker lights conserving energy and were easier on the eyes.

"Exiting slipspace fleet wide in 20!" The same officer yelled.

"You all have your jobs, do your duty and this battle will be ours." Cole spoke.

"5-4-3-2-Exiting NOW!" A bright blue portal appeared in front of them and they passed without hassle back into the larger galaxy, until various sirens went off around the bridge.

"Contacts, hostile fleet confirmed in orbit around _New Rome. _673 enemy victors, 12 CAS-Assault Carriers confirmed!" Sensors reported. "Heat signatures across the board, they're charging weapons and turning towards us. ETA until effective weapons range, 2 minutes."

"Fleet reporting in, green across the board!" Comms yelled next.

"Drift is 2k Mikes, formation retained, task-groups adjusting to face contacts!" Helm finally.

Cole nodded firmly, "Sensors, you have the co-ordinates?"

"Yes Admiral, sending them now!" Was the hasty reply.

"Good, Stewart, begin phase one." He calmly ordered.

"_Aye Aye Sir."_ Outside the ship, and in the wider fleet, 6 corvette's broke formation and began accelerating towards the approaching Covenant fleet, the familiar bluish portal opened in front of their bows and they disappeared within. A few moments later they appeared at even points among the enemy's formation.

Predictably, the Covenant immediately opened fire on the hapless ships, unknown to them, empty apart from a single dumb AI who had a single job.

In synchrony, half a dozen stars were briefly made as the stockpile of nukes in each ship were detonated among the Covenant armada, swallowing ships and defence platforms alike whole.

"WE HAVE DETONATION!" Sensors cheered and the rest of the bridge staff joined him a moment later. "Confirming destruction or combat kill of 228 victors, including 3 CAS-Class!" He reported, reading from his terminal.

Cole nodded again; it had worked. "Fleet Wide: Advance full burn, close the distance. Task-groups slit-off and co-ordinate fire. Wolfpacks, harry their flanks and carriers deploy fighters for support missions. Let's take back what's ours people!" He barked and the fleet obeyed, the more powerful MAC's already taking pot shots at the ships in the distance.

Cole nodded as the ship hummed and thumped repetitively beneath his feet, surveying the tactical layout on the holotable once more. The Covenant fleet was in disarray and would be easy to divide and conquer, especially as the battle lines began to blur.

"Fire the MAC's, staggered line, I want continuous fire on those ships. Missiles and torpedoes prioritise smaller vessels, and plasma beams for high priority targets." He listed and received various confirmations.

Good, the battle will still be tough, but a strong start always increased their odds.

* * *

/ Drem – Meridian – Azuro \

/ 18-4-2558 - Military Calendar \

/ 15:37 PM - Local Time \

"GO GO GO GO GO!" A nameless trooper yelled but Zaeed couldn't agree more, plasma pelted them as they raced forward, firing sporadically as they hastily moved from cover to cover.

On the third day, the attack on Delta broke down and the Covenant advance stalled in it's tracks and then routed completely when the promised reinforcements finally arrived, an entire armoured and mechanised battalion. Panthers, Scorpions, Mantis', Coyotes, Gauss Hogs, all of it.

Wolverines helped clear the skies over the Eastern part of the city allowing limited air support, and with help from the reinforcements, the rejuvenated and resupplied defenders pushed the assault all the way back through Charlie in a single day and back towards and into Bravo, the outskirts of the city.

It wouldn't be an easy fight to rid them entirely, they'd held it and Alpha for most of the battle and had set up defences for this exact scenario. Shade and Plasma turrets were stationed seemingly on every bend and terrace, but an abundance of energy shields and purple barricades provided enough cover that they could move forward in a careful advance.

The outskirts of the city were tighter too, the buildings smaller but packed together is tight streets and one-way roads. It made it hell for the Covenant on the way in, but now they were on the receiving end it was tiresome and bloody. The small streets meant they couldn't move a lot of armour through and Infantry advances were covered by the lightly armoured Coyote's and Gauss Hogs. The heavier and slower Mantis' and tanks were pulling up the rear and provided support where they could, but if destroyed they tended to block the road and had to be cleared before more could push up.

Thus the infantry had to be the main driving force behind the counter attack, but with a resupply of heavy weapons such as grenade launchers and batteries for the lasers it wasn't difficult to take care of the static emplacements, it was the numerous infantry that was the issue.

Zaeed slid into the cover of a barricade, Kidman and Fletcher joined them while Allman, Bailey and Preissner stopped a little further back. Zaeed stuck his head out briefly and immediately yanked it back in as streaks of fire swept past, he turned to Kidman. "Shade, 1 o'clock." He informed to the Australian who nodded and pulled his laser off his back.

"Cover!" He yelled and sprang up, Fletcher and Masanni did the same and pelted shots down the road into the lines of infantry. A few seconds later a red laser pierced the shade turret causing it to explode, catching a squad of Covenant around it. Another was destroyed further back by a rocket shot by another group.

"Move up Marines!" Allman yelled running past with Bailey hot on his heels, Zaeed and Kidman followed while Fletcher stayed.

An elite jumped up on the terrace in front of them, plasma repeater ready, but a streak from overhead turned his head into purple mist. They ran past the body, joined now by the rest of their attacking group, and took the high ground. Fighting off a few determine elites and Jackals that stayed behind while the rest of their force pulled further back into a plaza ahead. Their objective for the day.

Zaeed swore and ducked back from the edge of the terrace as his shields flared and failed, the plaza itself was literally crawling with Covenant and more than a few soldiers couldn't react in time.

" 'nade em!" One yelled, the others complied chucking a few dozen grenades into the square, making fire, blood and body parts to go flying. The Covenant weren't done yet however, several returned fire with a fury causing more soldiers to drop while two phantoms floated into the plaza, each carrying a wraith and dropping off 4 squads total of Brutes.

At was also at this point the armour caught up, 7 Gauss hogs raced down the road and into the plaza and began firing at the new arrivals, not taking out many before being destroyed themselves by the wraiths. 4 Coyotes then too joined the fight, their auto-cannons spat shells at the shielded wraiths while the infantry rained hell on the Brutes from above who ran for cover.

With the main threats being distracted, Zaeed and his squad moved right, down the terrace and into the streets again to flank their positions, quickly taking out a few stragglers. Others seemed to have had the same idea on the other side and the wraiths and Brutes were suddenly caught in a pincer.

They opened fire again and the first wraith went up in a cloud of purple fire and smoke, the remaining Coyote turned his gun on the last Wraith, destroying it a short time later. The remaining Brutes put up a fight but without their armour support were quickly cut apart.

The plaza went quiet apart from the general clank and movement of body armour and weapons. The plaza had only one exit but no Covenant advanced through it. Actually, it sounded like fighting had stopped completely around the city.

Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, they set about digging in for the day, setting down in defensible positions and a few Pelican dropped of engineers and equipment to begin some turret emplacements and walls.

20 Minutes later their comm's lit up.

_"All forces come in, Covenant forces are retreating from the city"_ A voice spoke over their intercom, the communications black-out had ended not long ago

Zaeed shared a look with Allman, "The Covenant don't just retreat…we may have pushed them back here but elsewhere they still held strong." He muttered.

There were similar observations around the plaza before a loud, terrible screeching interrupted them. Eyes turned skywards and to the Human's horror two CCS-Battlecruisers descended from the dense cloud cover flanked by 3 corvettes, spreading out around the city scape.

"RUN!" Zaeed yelled, and the men in the plaza scattered heading for the buildings, it took no genius to guess what came next. Standard procedure in a glassing was to find the nearest blast shelter, on the Stalingrad line, it was mandatory for a building to have one deep in the basement.

"HOW ARE THEY EVEN IN THE AIRSPACE? NOT ONLY SHOULD THE NAVY HAVE STOPPED THEM BUT THE ANTI-SHIP BATTERIES SHOULD BE ABLE TO BLOW THEM OUT THE SKY BY NOW!" Allman yelled as they kept running.

Then the first blast hit.

Their first warning was the sky turning red and a loud humming, growing in intensity and noise. The winds then picked up and the vibrations turned into an earthquake.

Next came the shockwave, shattering every pane of glass in the city, upturning vehicles, small or large, and throwing every solider to the ground.

Finally came the explosion.

The noise deafened those nearest and damn near tried for the rest, the noise dampeners installed in the helmets did nothing as the EMP rocked the city throwing out everything powered by electricity. Be it communications or HUD's.

Echo-16 picked themselves up and carried on running, they had little choice in the matter, but their hearts picked up as they neared the first building, an Army trooper already waiting by the door waved his arm.

Then the second blast hit, once more throwing the marines to the ground.

A building collapsed behind them, crushing soldiers not quick enough to get into the bunker.

Spurred on by the increasingly hellish cityscape behind them, standing again they once more continued running and neared the doors finally. The army trooper now inside the basement doors, began closing them as a red aura grew behind them, just peaking over the buildings.

Zaeed, Fletcher and Preissner were the first to reach the basement and jumped in the closing doors. Next came Bailey.

And the third blast hit.

Must closer than the last two, Kidman and Allman were thrown heavily to the side as chunks of the building began falling.

"NO!" Zaeed yelled preparing to run back out but was held back by three Army troopers grabbing him at the last second.

His last sight before the doors slammed shut was Allman rapping his knuckles on his chest piece in quiet acceptance. The room was encompassed in black as Zaeed sagged in the trooper's arms, who eventually let him go.

Meridian had fallen.

* * *

(End)

So, sorry for my absence. As I told a few who PM'd me, I had a few health issues that prevented me from writing on top of work I didn't have much time. So I hope the slightly longer chapter and the inclusion of our lord and saviour -117- helps alleviate some of my absence.

And feel free to criticise my explanation of why the Turians are able to track the slip-space ruptures, I know I was mostly talking out of my ass for most of it but I hope it makes some sort of believable sense.

But the big bang, Meridian has fallen, something I had planned for the start.

But standby, the big reveal is coming soon and while I'm still a bit undecided on which way to go about it the outcome is the same. I'm just trying to justify each one and which is more believable than the other.

Hopefully the next chapter shouldn't take as long, but don't get your hopes up. I'm a slow methodical writer.

-Red


End file.
